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WiUie-,  Rest. 


>^~2  

WII.LIR   AT    CHURCH. 


LITTLES  WILLIE, 


BT  THE  Atrrnoi:  or 
'uncle  jack  THB  FAULT-KILLEB,"  "  UNICA,"  bto. 


*fc*-- 


NEW  YORK : 

OENERA.L   PROTESTANT   EriSCOiPAL  SUNDAY   SCHOOL 

UNION,   AND  CHURCH   BOOK  SOCIETY. 

Nu.   T62  BROADWAY, 

1860. 


EDWARD  O.  JENKINft, 

iPnntfr  &  ^tfrcotnper, 
No.  26  Frankfort  Strkst. 


WILLIE'S  REST 


• 


# 


I 


WILLIE'S   REST. 


^HEN  Willie  was  very  small  indeed  he 
did  not  go  to  church  :  for  mamma 
said  he  was  so  weak  and  ignorant  he 
would  not  be  able  to  sit  still,  nor  to 
keep  awake,  but  that  he  might  disturb 
others.  She  told  him,  also,  that  God  was  so 
kind  and  pitiful  to  very  little  children,  that  he 
forgave  them  their  weakness,  and  loved  them 
the  better  for  it,  just  as  earthly  parents  do. 
On  Sundays  the  house  and  nursery  were  always 
quiet :  Willie  noticed  that,  as  soon  as  he  could 
notice  anything,  and  he  was  always  very  happy 
on  Sundays,  looking  at  pictures,  gathering 
flowers,  and  trying  to  keep  quiet  also,  and 
never  to  be  naughty  on  that  first  day  of  the 
1*  [5] 


6  Willie's  rest. 

week.  Yet  he  wanted  to  go  to  church  too, 
and  when  he  saw  mamma  putting  on  her  best 
dress  in  the  morning,  and  nurse  hers  in  tlie 
afternoon,  to  go  to  church,  he  always  enquircMl 
liow  long  it  would  be  before  he  was  old  enougli 
to  go  too.  At  last  that  Sunday  came,  and 
about  it  I  am  going  to  tell  you. 

Willie  was  up  very  early,  and  nurse  dressed 
him  in  a   clean  white  frock.      Then  he  ran 
into  the  garden  and  gathered  some  flowers  for 
mamma,  and  one  rose  for  papa  to  put  in  his 
button-hole.     When  he  went  in  to  breakfast  he* 
gave  the  flowers  to  them,  for  he  was  to  break- 
fast with  his  papa  and  mamma  on  Sundays—^ 
that  was  itself  a  great  pleasure.     After  break- 
fast Willie  repeaJte    some   verses   to  papa, 
which  he  had  learned  the  day  before  on  pur- 
pose, for  he  never  learned  any  lessons  on  Sun- 
day.    Then,  it  was  time  to   be   dressed  for 
church,  for  it  was  a  long  way  to  churcli,  across 
the  fields,  and  up  a  long  green  lane. 

Nurse  dressed  Willie  in  his  best  blue  velvet 
spencer,  and  his  best  straw  hat  with  white 
ribbons,  and  his  best  gloves,  and  the  pretty 


frill  which  his  aunt  had  worked  for  him. 
Then  he  ran  into  the  garden,  to  gather  a 
rosebud  and  a  lily  of  the  valley  to  carry  in 
his  hand.  And  when  he  returned  into  the 
house,  mamma  gave  him  a  beautiful  little 
prayer-book,  which  had  his  name  written  in 
it,  and  which  was  to  be  his  own  from  that 
day. 

It  was  a  delightful  walk  to  church.  Willie 
walked  between  his  mamma  and  papa, — an 
enjoyment  which  he  did  not  often  have,  because 
his  papa  was  in  London  all  the  week,  and  his 
only  day  of  rest  was  Sunday.  Mamma  had  a 
very  pretty  dress  on,  and  papa  wore  his  best 
coat ;  and,  after  thinking  a  good  deal  about 
it,  Willie  asked, — 

"  Why  do  we  wear  better  clothes  on  Sundays 
than  we  do  the  other  days  of  the  week?  " 

"  It  is  to  show  honor  to  the  church  we  are 
going  to,  because  that  is  God's  house,"  papa 
replied.  "  It  is  a  little  thing  to  do  in  honor 
of  anything  so  great,  but  it  shows  we  feel  in 
our  minds  that  we  ought  to  give  God  the  best 
of  everything.     It  is  the  same  feeling,  Willie, 


8  WILLIES   REST. 

that  makes  papas  and  mammas  take  their 
young  babies  to  be  christened — tlien  they  give 
God  what  is  most  precious  to  them.  It  is  the 
same  reason  which  makes  you  gather  your  best 
(lowers  to  give  to  me  and  your  mamma.  For, 
though  God  is  your  great  Parent,  still  your 
mother  and  I  stand  between  you  and  Him, 
while  you  are  so  very  little.  As  you  offer  us 
the  flowers,  we  offer  you  to  Him  ;  for  you  are 
like  a  flower  to  us,  and  your  little  brother  is 
like  another  flower,  making  our  lives  as  bright 
as  the  flowers  make  the  garden." 

"  Don't  you  remember,  Willie,"  said  mamma, 
"  how  very  beautiful  a  temple  Solomon  built 
in  the  olden  times  for  God  ?  That  temple  was 
the  church  of  those  old  times  ;  and  all  that 
was  rich  and  glorious,  gold,  and  silver,  and 
ivory,  the  fairest  colors,  and  most  precious 
woods,  were  used  to  build  the  temple.  That 
was  an  emblem  of  what  we  should  do  for  God. 
There  is  a  fine  text  which  says,  '  All  things 
come  of  God,  and  of  His  own  do  we  give 
Him.'" 

"  Was  that  the  reason,  papa,"  asked  Willie, 


"  that  when  Christ  was  born  in  tlio  manger, 
those  wise  men  brouglit  Him  presents,  and 
called  Him  the  King  of  the  Jews  ?" 

'' Yes,  Willie  ;  you  remember  they  brought 
gold,  which  is  the  most  valuable  thing  ;  and 
frankincense  and  myrrh,  which  are  the  two 
things  which  smell  the  sweetest." 

"And  is  that  the  reason,  papa,  why  they 
build  churches  so  handsome,  and  have  organs 
and  bells,  and  sometimes  colored  windows,  as 
nurse  says  tliey  do  ?  '' 

"  Certainly,  Willie.  A  great  many  years 
ago  rich  good  people  built  great  churches 
called  cathedrals,  which  were  beautiful  indeed. 
Stone  and  wood  and  marble  were  carved  to 
adorn  them,  and  they  had  long  lines  of  arches, 
as  shady  and  as  high  as  the  avenue  of  trees 
in  front  of  your  grandpapa's  house.  The 
windows  were  of  colors  more  splendid  than 
the  rainbow,  or  the  petals  of  red  and  blue  and 
yellow  flowers.  There  were  great  organs,  too, 
in  those  cathedrals,  and  boys  and  men  were 
taught  to  sing  the  praises  of  God  in  the 
finest    voices.      Every    day   in    those   great 


10  Willie's  rest. 

churches  there  was  prayer  and  ])raise  in  sweet 
music,  not  only  on  Sundays.  And  there  are 
many  such  cathedrals  standing  now,  having 
lasted  all  these  years  because  they  are  so  strong- 
ly built  ;  and  some  day,  Willie,  you  shall  go 
with  us  to  see  one." 

"  But  they  don't  build  such  beautiful  churches 
now,  do  they,  papa  ?  " 

"  There  are  more  churches  wanted  now, 
Willie,  and  more  people  :  and  everybody  is 
not  rich,  as  you  know.  But  there  are  many 
rich  people  who  help  to  build  beautiful  new 
churches.  And  the  good  Queen  Victoria, 
whom  you  love  so  much,  gave  a  beautiful 
colored  window  to  a  church  the  other  day. 

"  But  you  know,  dear  Willie,  that  though, 
when  you  bring  your  mamma  or  me  a  beauti- 
ful moss  rose-bud,  or  a  fair  little  lily  of  the 
valley,  out  of  your  own  garden,  we  like  and 
admire  it  very  much  ;  yet,  if  you  had  no  gar- 
den, and  could  only  gather  and  bring  us  a 
few  daisies  out  of  the  field,  we  should  love 
them  quite  as  well,  because  they  would  show 
your  love  to  us  as  much  as  the  lilies  and  the 


Willie's  rest.  U 

roses.  So  it  is  with  tliat  Aliniglity  Father  who 
loves  lis  all.  He  hears  our  prayers  and  praises 
as  well  ill  the  churches  whicli  arc  not  so  hand- 
some, as  in  the  rich  ones  or  the  old  cathedrals  ; 
and  if  we  were  in  a  desert,  where  there  was 
no  church  at  all,  He  would  listen  as  kindly,  if 
we  prayed  with  all  our  hearts,  and  loved'  to 
praise  Him." 

And,  as  papa  said  those  words,  they  came 
up  to  the  churcliyard  gate.  Nurse  had  taken 
Willie  to  see  tlic  churchyard  several  times  in 
his  walks,  and  he  had  always  thought  it  looked 
solemn  and  beautiful,  though  very  still,  in  the 
midst  of  the  green  graves  and  the  white  tomb- 
stones. B^it  to-day  it  looked  pleasant  as  well 
as  peaceful,  for  many  persons,  rich  and  poor 
and  many  little  children,  all  in  their  best 
dresses,  were  coming  into  the  churchvard,  and 
the  sweet  bells  were  ringing— those  bells 
which  Willie  had  often  listened  to,  at  a  dis- 
tance, when  he  was  too  young  to  go  to  church. 
He  had  never  been  in  the  church  before,  ex- 
cept when  he  was  a  little  baby,  to  be  chris- 
tened, and  of  course  he  could  not  remember 


12  Willie's  rest. 

that.  He  held  his  breatli  wliile  mamma  led  him 
up  the  aisle  into  the  pew,  for  it  made  him  feel 
,i^raver  than  he  had  ever  done  before,  to  see  all 
those  people  met  together  in  order  to  pray  to 
God,  and  to  thank  Him  for  all  His  kindness, 
and  think  of  how  to  please  Him  best.  Mamma 
took  his  hat  off,  and  found  the  place  in  his 
prayer-book  for  him,  before  the  clergyman,  in 
his  white  robe,  got  into  the  reading-desk. 

When  the  service  began  Willie  was  very 
attentive,  indeed.  He  followed  every  word 
in  his  book,  and  made  all  tlie  answers,  and 
tried  to  sing  when  the  school-children,  on  each 
side  of  the  organ,  chanted  the  psalms.  And 
when  everybody  knelt  down,  Willie  put  his 
book  up  to  his  face,  as  he  saw  papa  and 
mamma  do,  and  tried  to  pray  in  his  heart. 
But  when  the  sermon  began,  Willie  felt  a  lit- 
tle tired,  and  he  went  on  feeling  more  so. 
His  mamma  had  told  him  tliat  perhaps  he 
would  feel  tired,  because  the  service  is  long 
for  a  little  child,  who  is  not  fond  of  sitting 
still.  But  she  had  made  Willie  promise  he 
would  sit  still  even  if  he  were  tired,  and  he 


WILLI E'd    REST.  13 

tried  very  much  to  keep  his  promise  ;  and 
mamma  saw  that  he  was  doing  so,  and  smiled 
at  liim  once. 

Willie  saw,  in  a  pew  before  him,  some  chil- 
dren who  were  very  fidgety  ;  there  were  two 
girls  and  a  boy.  The  girls  got  up  and  down 
on  the  seats,  and  disturbed  their  mamma  very 
much,  for  she  was  obliged  to  take  her  eyes  off 
the  clergyman  every  instant,  and  whisper  to 
them  to  be  still.  But  they  were  not  still  even 
then  ;  and,  at  last,  they  began  to  make  dolls 
of  their  pocket-handkerchiefs,  and  behave  as 
if  tliey  were  playing  in  the  nursery,  instead  of 
sitting  in  church.  The  boy,  who  was  much 
younger  than  the  girls,  of  course  imitated  their 
bad  example.  He  took  all  kinds  of  things 
out  of  his  pockets  ;  first  a  bit  of  string,  and 
then  a  pencil,  with  which  he  scribbled  on  his 
mamma's  prayer-book  ;  and  then  some  marbles, 
which  he  stuffed  into  his  mouth  like  plums. 

Oh,  how   shocked   did  AVillie  feel !    and  I 

think  seeing  them  behave  so  badly  helped  him 

to   behave  well ;  for  he  thought  how  sad  it 

would  have  made  his  mamma  and  papa  to  see 

2 


14  Willie's  rest. 

him  play  in  church.  The  cliildren's  mamma 
was  shocked  too,  and  she  took  the  girls' 
pocket-liandkerchiefs  away  from  them,  and  th6 
boy's  string  and  pencil,  and  she  pulled  the 
marbles  out  of  his  mouth.  Then  the  boy 
slipped  down,  and  sat  on  one  of  the  hassocks, 
and  Willie  could  not  see  him,  but  hoped  per- 
haps he  was  going  to  be  good. 

But  Willie  was  to  have  a  lesson,  too,  about 
going  to  sleep  in  church  ;  for  the  boy  had  gone 
fast  to  sleep,  and  presently  he  tumbled  down 
on  the  floor  at  the  bottom  of  the  pew  !  His 
mamma  pulled  him  up,  and  I  suppose  he  was 
dreaming,  for  he  cried  out  loud,  in  the  very 
middle  of  the  sermon  !  And,  as  his  mamma 
lifted  him  on  her  lap,  he  cried  louder :  and  the 
clergyman  stopped  in  the  middle  of  the  sermon, 
and  said  in  a  very  grave  voice,  "  Take  that 
child  out!"  Oh,  how  ashamed  did  the  boy 
look  when  he  had  quite  woke  up,  and  remem- 
bered where  he  was,  and  felt  himself  led  by 
his  mamma  down  the  aisle,  with  all  the  con- 
gregation looking  at  him  I 
Willie  thought,  as  the  boy  passed  his  papa's 


*  WILLIE'S    REST.  15 

pew,  that  he  would  never,  never  go  to  sleep  in 
church,  for  fear  of  doing  the  same  thing,  and 
being  made  so  greatly  ashamed.  After  the 
boy  was  gone,  the  girls  too  were  very  quiet 
till  the  end  of  the  sermon  ;  so  I  hope  the  les- 
son did  them  good  too.  And  Willie  tried  very 
much  indeed  to  listen  to  the  sermon,  and  he 
did  remember  a  little  piece  of  it,  to  tell  his 
mamma  and  papa  when  they  went  out  of 
church. 

After  the  service  was  over,  Willie  asked  if 
he  might  look  at  the  graves,  and  his  papa  and 
mamma  took  liim  all  round  the  churchyard. 
Willie  did  not  tread  upon  the  graves,  but 
walked  carefully  between  them.  He  wanted 
to  find  the  graves  of  little  children,  and  there 
were  many  there.  One  in  particular  pleased 
Willie,  it  was  so  pretty  and  kept  so  neatly. 
The  grass  was  cut  close,  and  there  was  a  great 
deal  of  moss  mixed  with  it  ;  and  round  it  were 
planted  lilies  of  the  valley,  out  in  white  blos- 
som that  summer  Sunday.  At  the  head  of  the 
grave  there  was  a  little  white  stone,  and  these 
words  were  cut  on  the  stone,  "  Of  such  is  the 


16  Willie's  rest. 

kingdom  of  heaven."  And  tliere  was  at  the 
foot  of  the  grave,  to  mark  its  length,  a  little 
white  cross.  The  grave  was  just  Willie's 
length,  and  the  cross  reminded  him  that  tlio 
Saviour,  who  died  upon  the  cross,  said  about 
little  children,  ''  Of  sucli  is  the  kingdom  of 
heaven." 

"  Mamma,"  asked  Willie,  "  do  they  make 
graves  the  shape  of  pillows  because  the  people 
are  at  rest  ?" 

"  Perhaps  those  who  first  made  them  of  that 
shape  did  so,  Willie  ;  but  there  are  graves  of 
every  shape  and  every  kind  in  this  great  earth, 
where  so  many  are  at  rest,  their  bodies  as 
much  in  God's  care  under  the  ground,  as  their 
souls  are  in  his  care  in  heaven." 

"Mamma,"  Willie  said,  "  I  should  like,  if  I 
die  wliile  I  am  little,  to  be  buried  in  a  grave 
like  that,  with  flowers  round  me  and  a  cross." 

"  Dear  Willie,  it  would  not  really  matter 
how  you  were  buried.  When  people  and 
children  die  who  leave  dear  friends  behind 
them,  their  friends  like  to  show  their  love  and 
recollection  of  them  by  making  their  graves 


Willie's  rest.  17 

look  bright  and  peaceful.  But  there  are  peo- 
ple who  die  witliout  leaving  friends,  and  chil- 
dren who  are  forgotten,  except  by  God,  in 
their  graves.  God  remembers  all.  Tliere  are 
people  lying  dead  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea. 
and  underneath  the  sands  of  the  desert  ;  and 
earthquakes  have  made  great  graves  for  hun- 
dreds of  people  at  once ;  and  thousands  of 
men  have  been  killed  in  battles,  and  been  put 
all  together  into  large  holes  ;  and,  in  times  of 
great  sickness,  people  have  been  buried  with- 
out prayers.  And  there  are  caves  in  rocks 
where  men's  bodies  are  found  after  many  years  ; 
and  men  have  died  in  vast  forests,  and  their 
bones  have  turned  white  under  the  trees  and 
never  been  buried  at  all.  But  God  remembers 
them  all,  and  sees  all  who  are  buried  or  turned 
to  dust ;  He  watches  over  all  and  keeps  all 
safe,  to  raise  up  perfect  and  beautiful  when 
His  good  time  comes.  It  does  not  matter 
where  we  are  buried,  if  we  die  loving  Him." 

I  think  this  was  a  little  sermon  for  Willie, 
out  of  mamma's  mouth,  which  he  understood 
better  than  the  clergyman's  because  it  was 
2* 


V 


18  Willie's  rest. 

made  on  purpose  for  him.  He  listened  to  it 
all  the  time,  but  during  the  last  two  or  three 
words  he  had  been  just  a  little  impatient,  for 
he  saw  something  moving  behind  one  of  tlie 
great  tombstones,  a  good  way  off  from  tlie  lit- 
tle grave  by  which  they  stood. 

"  Mamma,"  he  asked,  when  she  left  off  speak- 
ing, "  may  I  go  and  see  what  is  moving  ?  I 
think  it  is  a  sheep  or  a  lamb,  and  I  should  like 
to  stroke  it." 

Mamma  gave  him  leave,  and  he  went  gently 
among  the  graves  till  he  got  beliind  the  large 
tombstone.  Beyond  that  tombstone  there  were 
no  more  stones,  only  a  number  of  graves  with- 
out any,  where  very  poor  persons  were  buried. 
Some  of  them  were  covered  with  long  grass 
and  daisies,  but  some  were  only  brown  earth  ; 
those  had  been  dug  lately,  and  there  had  not 
been  time  for  the  grass  to  grow  up.  Willie 
felt  sorry  for  the  poor  people  at  first,  seeing 
they  had  no  stones,  no  crosses,  no  lilies.  But 
in  a  moment  he  remembered  wliat  his  mamma 
had  said,  that  it  did  not  matter  where  people 
are  buried  if  they  died  loving  God.     Willie 


Willie's  rest.  19 

soon  saw  that  what  he  had  noticed  moving 
about  was  not  a  sheep  or  lamb,  but  a  very  lit- 
tle child,  who  was  lying  on  the  ground  witli 
its  head  on  one  of  the  brown  graves.  This 
little  child  was  dressed  in  a  rough  black  frock 
and  coarse  black  straw  hat,  and  it  had  no  tippet 
to  cover  its  neck  and  arms  ;  and  it  was  eating  a 
little  piece  of  very  brown  bread.  AVillie  went 
up  to  it ;  it  was  a  little  boy  he  saw,  less  than 
himself. 

"  What  is  the  matter,"  asked  Willie,  "  and 
why  do  you  put  your  head  on  the  grave  that 
has  no  grass  ?  It  is  not  so  soft  as  the  others 
where  the  grass  and  daisies  grow." 

"  My  mammy  is  buried  here,"  said  the  boy  ; 
"  only  buried  last  Sunday,  and  they  would  not 
let  me  come  to  see  her  all  the  week,  so  I  ran 
here  after  school." 

"  Did  you  go  to  scliool  in  church  ?"  asked 
Willie. 

"  I  went  before  church,  and  to  church  after- 
wards," said  the  boy,  eating  his  bread  very 
fast,  as  though  he  were  very  hungry. 

"  Are  you  very  very  sorry  your  mamma  is 


20  WILLIE'S   REST. 

dead  ?"  asked  Willie,  who  tliought,  "  Oh,  how 
sad,  how  sad  it  must  be  !  how  difiicult  to  be 
good  or  happy  without  a  mamma  !" 

Then  the  boy  began  to  cry,  and  rubbed  his 
fingers  into  his  eyes,  for  he  had  no  pocket- 
handkerchief  And  Willie  was  very  sorry, 
and  pulled  out  his  little  pocket-handkerchief 
and  wiped  his  eyes  for  him. 

"  Then,  I  suppose  you  have  a  papa  ?"  asked 
Willie,  "  and  that  is  very  nice." 

"  No,"  said  the  boy,  "  my  father  died  when 
I  was  a  baby,  and  mammy  went  to  market 
every  day  ;  and  when  it  was  wet  she  caught 
a  very  bad  cold,  and  lay  in  bed  till  last  Sun- 
day, and  tlien  she  died.  And  she  said  she  was 
going  to  heaven,  and  told  me  not  to  fret,  but 
to  be  a  good  boy.  But  I  can't  help  fretting, 
and  I  can't  always  be  good,  because  I  feel 
miserable  ;  and  I  can't  believe  she  is  in  heaven, 
when  I  look  at  this  ugly  place,  where  they 
liave  hidden  her." 

"  But  we  must  believe  in  heaven,  because  we 
can't  see  it,"  said  Willie  ;  "  mamma  says  so. 
And  she  says  many  people  are  buried  in  much 


Willie's  kest.  21 

uglier  places  than  that.  Earthquakes  swal- 
lowed up  some,  and  some  fell  in  tlie  sea,  and 
some  were  buried  without  pra3'ers,  and  some 
weren't  buried  at  all,  but  went  to  pieces  under 
the  trees.  Don't  you  hear  me  say.  tliat  mamma 
told  me  it  did  not  matter  where  people  were 
buried,  if  they  died  loving  God  ?  And  your 
mamma  did,  or  she  would  not  have  told  you 
she  was  going  to  heaven.  Is  that  little  bit  of 
bread  your  breakfast  or  your  lunch  ?"  Willie 
asked,  for  the  boy  was  eating  up  tlie  last  piece 
very  hungrily. 

"  One  of  the  boys  at  school  gave  me  half 
his  bread  that  he  brought  for  breakfast,"  an- 
swered the  boy.  "  It  was  very  kind  of  him, 
because  I  had  very  little  bread  for  breakfast 
before  I  came  to  school." 

"  And  where  do  you  live  when  you  are  at 
home  ?"  asked  Willie,  still  more  curious,  and 
feeling  more  sorry. 

"  I  have  not  got  a  home,  not  even  a  home  in 
one  room  now,"  said  the  boy.  "  Some  gentle- 
men took  me  to  another  house  after  mother 
died,  and  there  is  a  woman  there  with  a  great 
many  children,  and  she  takes  care  of  me." 


22  WILLI  p:*s  kest. 

"  Is  slie  kind  T  asked  Willie  ^ 

*'  Yes,  slie  kisses  me  sometimes  ;  but  the 
children  don't  like  me  mucli,  because  I  am  sad 
and  don't  care  to  play.  After  churcli,  when  I 
said  T  should  lie  on  my  mammy's  grave  a  bit, 
they  all  ran  home,  and  I  dare  say  all  the  pota- 
toes are  eaten  up  by  this  time.  I  saved  the 
bit  of  bread,  which  the  other  boy  gave  me  be- 
fore school,  because  I  wanted  to  stop  behind." 

•'  Do  you  only  have  potatoes  for  dinner  on 
Sunday  ?"  asked  Willie. 

"  Except  sometimes  we  have  bacon  and 
greens,  and  tliey  are  very  nice.  But  we  only 
were  to  have  potatoes  to-day,  because  the  last 
piece  of  bacon  is  gone." 

Willie  stood  still  one  minute  looking  at  the 
boy,  and  then  ran  back  to  his  papa  and  mamma, 
for  they  had  been  so  kind  as  to  wait  for  him. 

"  Oh,  mamma !"  cried  he,  for  his  heart  was 
full  ;  "  it  is  not  a  lamb,  it  is  a  boy,  who  has 
been  sitting  on  his  mamma's  grave  to  eat  his 
dinner  ;  and  it  is  only  brown  bread,  and  they 
only  have  potatoes  for  dinner  where  the  wo- 
man takes  care  of  him  :  only  potatoes  on  Sun- 


Willie's  kest.  23 

day,  oh,  mamma !  And  the  potatoes  will  all 
be  eaten  up,  because  he  stayed  behind  to  sit  on 
his  mamma's  grave." 

Then  Willie  pulled  his  mamma's  hand  verv 
gently,  and  drew  her  a  little  way  from  papa. 
"  Mamma,  may  I  take  the  boy  home  and  give 
him  my  dinner,  for  I  am  not  very  hungry,  and 
I  had  an  egg  for  breakfast.  And  we  are 
going  to  have  so  nice  a  dinner,  mamma,— duck 
and  pudding,  and  cherry  pie." 

Willie  whispered  this  to  mamma. 

But  mamma  said,  "  We  need  not  be  afraid 
to  ask  papa,  Willie,  for  I  am  sure  he  will  give 
the  boy  a  nice  dinner  to-day  to  please  you,  as 
it  is  the  first  time  you  have  been  to  church, 
and  you  tried  to  sit  s.^11.  xind  I  have  no 
doubt  papa  will  give  you  your  dinner,  too, 
Willie." 

And,  indeed,  Willie  need  not  have  been 
afraid  to  ask  papa,  for  papa  said  "  Yes" 
directly,  and  looked  pleased  to  be  asked. 

Then  Willie  ran  to  the  boy  and  took  hold 
of  his  hand,  and  said,  "Be  very  happy,  don't 
be  sad  to-day,  for  you  are  going  home  with  me 


'24:  WILLIES   REST. 

to  have  dinner,  and  I  can  tell  you  it  is  a  very 
nice  dinner  indeed." 

And  tlie  boy  was  very  happy  and  very  much 
surprised,  and,  for  the  first  time  in  his  life,  was 
glad  to  be  hungry. 

Papa  was  so  kind  as  to  say  he  would  call  at 
the  house  where  the  woman,  who  took  care  of 
the  boy,  lived,  that  she  might  know  where  he 
was.  So  papa  and  mamma  walked  on  in  front, 
and  Willie  and  the  boy  behind. 

Willie  talked  to  the  boy  all  the  way.  He 
[leard  many  things  from  the  boy  about  being 
f)Oor,  and  cold,  and  hungry,  and  about  work- 
ing very  hard.  Those  things  made  Willie 
ashamed  to  remember  how  often  he  had  grum- 
bled in  winter  because  the  water  was  cold 
when  he  was  washed"*  and  how  often  he  had 
wished  for  cake  when  he  was  eating  bread 
and  butter  ;  and  how  many  times  he  had  been 
idle  over  his  sliort  easy  lessons. 

About  half  tlie  way  home  they  came  to  the 
house  where  the  boy  lived  ;  it  stood  behind 
the  hedge  in  a  field  full  of  stones,  and  was  a 
very  small  house  indeed.     Willie's  papa  spoke 


Willie's  rest.  25 

to  the  woman,  and  she  gave  the  boy  leave  to 
go. 

The  rest  of  the  way  home,  Willie  repeated 
all  the  verses  he  knew  to  the  boj,  and  the  boy 
said  some  he  had  learned  at  school ;  and  then 
Willie  told  him  a  story  from  one  of  his  little 
books.  Tlie  story  was  not  finished  when  they 
reached  home,  and  tlie  boy  was  so  sorry  he 
could  not  hear  the  end,  that  Willie  promised 
to  give  him  the  little  book  for  his  own. 

It  was  a  great  treat  for  the  poor  boy  to  see 
the  garden,  for  he  had  never  been  in  such  a 
large  one  before.  So  much  he  admired  it,  that 
Willie  asked  his  mamma  to  allow  nurse  to 
carry  out  into  the  garden  the  little  table  and 
chair  that  were  kept  in  the  nursery.  And,  as 
it  was  very  fine,  she  allowed  nurse  to  put  them 
in  the  garden. 

It  was  the  greatest  treat  the  boy  had  ever 
had  in  his  life,  to  have  a  good  dinner 
at  a  little  table  covered  with  a  white  cloth, 
sitting  in  a  little  chair  under  the  trees  in 
which  the  birds  were  singing,  amidst  the 
sweet-smelling  full-blown  roses,  and  bushes  of 
3 


26 


purple  lavender.  And  it  was  a  great  treat  to 
Willie  to  wait  upon  him  ;  he  ran  out  of  the 
dining-room  with  his  plate,  and  fetched  it 
again  that  he  might  be  helped  twice,  and  took 
him  some  pie,  and  after  dinner  a  little  fruit 
and  a  biscuit.  Then,  after  dinner,  mamma 
called  Willie  into  her  dressing-room. 

**  Would  you  not  like  to  give  the  little  boy 
something  to  take  away  ?  " 

"  Yes,  mamma,"  said  Willie,  "  and  I  am 
going  to  give  him  one  of  my  little  books,  for 
I  began  to  tell  him  the  story,  and  we  got  home 
before  it  was  finished." 

"  Very  well,  Willie  ;  but  I  dare  say  you 
would  like  to  give  him  something  to  keep  him 
warm,  as  he  has  no  tippet.  If  you  were  a 
little  girl  you  could  make  one  for  him  ;  but  as 
you  are  a  little  boy  and  cannot  work,  you 
must  give  him  one  of  your  own.  There  is  the 
grey  cloth  cape  you  used  to  wear  in  the  winter 
in  the  garden  ;  but  when  your  grandmamma 
knitted  your  white  woollen  jacket,  I  hung  the 
cape  up  in  my  wardrobe,  for  you  did  not  want 
both." 


Willie's  rest.  27 

"  No  more  I  did,  mamma  ;  let  me  give  it 
to  the  boy.  And  I  will  give  him  the  four- 
penny  piece  which  grandmamma  gave  me  last 
Monday,  for  I'm  sure  I  do  not  want  any  toys, 
and  It's  no  good  keeping  money  in  a  box  and 
doing  nothing  with  it." 

Mamma  quite  agreed  to  that,  and  was  glad 
Wilhe  tliought  of  giving  it  away,  for  he  had 
been  rather  too  fond  of  talking  about  keepino- 
his  money  in  a  box.  *^ 

"  I  should  like  the  boy  to  come  every  Sun- 
day to   dinner,  mamma,"  said    Willie,  while 
mamma  was  looking  for  the  warm  grey  cape, 
"We    must    not   talk   about    that    to-day 
Willie,  nor  can  I  tell   till  I  have  spoken  to' 
your  papa.     Perhaps  if  you  were  good  all  the 
week,   and  very   still   at   church   on   Sunday 
morning,  we  might  allow  you  to  have  such  a 
pleasure.     And  next  week  we  will  talk  about 
doing  something  for  the  boy  besides  ;  for  we 
should  never,  Willie,  do  good  for  others  by 
fits  and  starts,  but  go  on  helping  them,  even  if 
we  have  to  give  up  something  ourselves." 
Willie  knew  what  mamma  meant.      Once 


28  Willie's  rest. 

he  wanted  to  give  a  poor  old  blind  man  a 
penny  a  week  all  the  winter,  for  his  papa  al- 
lowed him  a  penny  every  Saturday.  For  six 
weeks  AVilliewas  glad  to  give  the  penny,  then, 
all  at  once,  he  wanted  to  save  it  and  keep  it 
in  a  box  ;  so  he  left  off  giving  it  to  the  poor 
blind  man.  Well,  one  day  soon  afterwards,  he 
saw  the  man  in  the  road,  while  he  was  walk- 
ing with  nurse.     Nurse  asked  him  how  he  was. 

"  Pretty  well,"  said  the  blind  man,  •'  but  I 
don't  enjoy  my  Sunday  cup  of  tea  so  much  as 
I  used  to,  now  I  only  have  brown  bread  with 
it.'^ 

''  Why  do  you  eat  brown  bread  then  ?  "  ask- 
ed nurse,  for  she  wished  Willie  to  hear,  though 
the  blind  man  did  not  know  Willie  was  with 
nurse,  as  he  could  not  see  him. 

"  Because  little  master  left  off  giving  me  the 
penny  ;  I  used  to  buy  a  white  roll  with  the 
penny,  and  enjoyed  it  so  much.  But  God  bless 
little  master  :  Vm  sure  so  kind  a  little  master 
had  something  better  to  do  witli  it,  when  he 
left  off  giving  it  to  me." 

Willie  knew  he  had  done  nothing?    better 


Willie's  rest. 


2( 


with  It,  and  was  mucli  aslmmed  ;  and  I  need 

scarcely  say  he  gave  his  next  week's  pennx  to 
the  poor  bl.nd„,an.     But  when  n,a,nma  spoke 
of  doing  good  by  fits  and  starts,  he  was  remind- 
cdo    t,,a    ,tory  f,f  the  blind  man.     Mamma 
folded  up  the  cape;  and  Willie  folded  the  four: 
penny  piece  and  the  story  book  in  white  paper 
and  gathered  a  few  flowers  for  the  boy  too     so 
he  went  away  after  dinner,  with  his  hands  full 
of  presents  and  his  heart  full  of  pleasure,  for 
he  had  never  had  so  happy  a  Sunday  before. 

Sunday  afternoon  was  come.     Tlie  sun  was 
very  hot  ,n  the  garden,  except  under  the  tree, 
and  WiUic  thought,  "I  have  been  very  happy 
oerainb^al     the   morning ;  but   noi /am 
getting  tii-ed,  too  tired  to  look  at  pictures  ;  I 

arn:o:^'^^^"^°-'«>--^f^"^^e 

He  need  not  have  wondered,  for  mamma 
never  forgot  anything  to  make  him  happy  and 
good.     Baby  was  asleep  for  his  afternoo 'nap 

•n  his  cradle  in  the  nursery,  and  nurso  was' 
go^ng  to  church.  Papa  went  to  read  iTh" 
library,  but  mamma  had  not  forgotten  Willie! 


3Q  Willie's  rest.  j, 

She  saw  him  stand  looking  rather  melancholy 
out   of    the    drawing-room  window,  and   she 
went  and  took  his  hand.     "  Come,  Willie,  you 
and  I  will  have  a  rest  in  the  garden  underneath 
the  trees,  and  we  will  talk  about  Sunday,  too." 
Willie  was  very  glad,  for  when  mamma  talked 
to  him  alone,  she  always  let  him  sit  upon  her  lap. 
And  mamma   took  a  seat  under  the  trees 
where  it  was  very  shady,  though  all  round  the 
garden  was  bright  in  the  sun.      There  were 
sweet  smells,  sweet  colours,  and  sweet  sounds 
of  bells  ringing  far  away  ;  everything  to  make 
Sunday  afternoon  sweet  to  the  thoughts  of  a 
child  with  a  loving  heart  ;  and  Willie  had  a 
loving  heart,  though  he  was  sometimes  naughty, 
—nor  had  he  been  naughty  that  day. 

"  I  am  very  glad,  mamma,  you  did  not  send 
me  into  the  nursery  to  look  at  pictures  ;  I  like 
best  to  shut  my  eyes  on  your  lap,  and  hear  you 
talk.  And,  mamma,  you  said  we  would  talk 
about  Sunday." 

"  So  we  will,  Willie.  Can  you  tell  me  why 
Sunday  is  so  good  a  time,  and  so  great  a  bless- 
in  jr  for  the  world  It? 


31 


"  Why,  mamma,  because  we  think  about  God, 
and  pray  more  all  together  tlian  on  other  days, 
and  sing  praises  too." 

"But  there  is  another  reason  I  want  you  to 
understand.  Certainly  we  meet  togetlier  to 
pray  and  sing  on  Sunday  ;  but  persons  who 
love  God  try  to  please  him  all  their  lives  long, 
and  to  keep  His  commandments  every  day  of 
the  week.  Sunday  is  given  to  men  by  God 
that  they  may  rest  ;  rest  their  souls  by  think- 
ing of  heaven,  rest  their  bodies  by  leaving  all 
their  work,  rest  their  minds  by  doing  no  busi- 
ness on  that  day  of  the  week.  Suppose,  Willie, 
that  your  papa  and  I  were  going  away  from 
home,  and  we  said  to  you,  '  Willie,  all  the  time 
we  are  away  you  are  to  be  very  industrious  at 
your  lessons,  and  all  that  we  leave  you  to  do 
must  be  done  by  the  time  we  return.'  And 
then,  suppose  we  set  you  long  long  sums,  very 
hard  spelling  columns,  and  many  many  copies, 
— so  many  of  all  that  you  had  not  one  instant 
for  play  all  the  time  we  were  gone,  but  were 
obliged  to  do  lessons  till  dinner,  and  just 
swallow  your  dinner  very  fast  that  you  might 


32  Willie's  rest. 

go  on  with  your  tasks  ;  and  again  so  at  tea- 
time,  and  all  the  evening,  till,  when  bed-time 
came,  you  were  too  tired  even  to  say  your 
prayere,  and  fell  asleep  before  nurse  undressed 
you.  And  suppose  the  lessons  lasted  till  we 
came  home,  and  we  asked  you  then,  *  Willie, 
have  you  thought  about  us  while  we  were 
away  ? '  What  answer  do  you  think  you 
would  make   to  us  ?  " 

"  Why,"  said  Willie,  opening  his  eyes  a 
moment,  "  I  should  say,  I  had  been  thinking 
about  my  lessons  too  much  to  think  about  you 
and  papa,  and  that  you  had  given  me  such 
long  lessons  that  they  took  all  the  time,  and  I 
had  no  time  to  write  you  any  letters." 

"  I  dare  say  you  would,  Willie.  And  if 
God  had  not  given  us  Sunday,  we  might  make 
excuses  for  not  thinking  about  Him.  We 
might  say,  '  We  have  so  much  to  do  ;  there  is 
so  much  business  always  going  on  in  the  world, 
that  there  is  no  time  to  remember  or  to 
rest.'  I  think,  Willie,  if  all  persons  recollect- 
ed tliat  it  was  in  His  kindness  God  gave  them 
Sunday,  they  would  all  keep  it,  and  rest  that 


33 


day.  So  they  would  think  more  about  Him, 
learn  to  love  Him  more  and  more,  till  at  last 
they  were  filled  with  love  to  Him  for  the 
good,  beautiful  and  useful  things  He  gives 
them  all  the  other  days,  and  for  the  greatest 
of  all  the  gifts  He  has  given  all  the  world. 
You  know  what  the  best  thing  of  all  is,  Willie ; 
try  and  tell  me." 

"  Well,  mamma,  if  we  were  going  to  bo  al- 
ways down  here  in  the  world,  I  think  the  best 
thing  would  be  alivays  to  be  quite  well.  For 
when  I  was  sick  with  the  measles,  I  was  quite 
miserable,  except  when  you  sat  and  talked  to 
me  about  God  and  heaven.  Then,  if  every- 
body was  always  well  they  could  work  hard 
and  get  rich,  and  build  beautiful  houses,  and 
ask  their  friends  to  stop  vrith  them.  But, 
mamma,  we  are  not  always  going  to  be  down 
here.  And  when  first  nurse  told  me  people 
died,  oh  !  1  was  frightened,  I  was  unhappy. 
But  the7i  yoa  told  me  all  about  Jesus  Christ, 
whom  God  sent  down  to  tell  the  people,  cdl 
the  people,  how  to  get  to  lieaven.  Jesus  Christ 
is  the  best  thing  God  gave  us,  mamma." 


34  WILLIE'S   REST. 

"  And  Willie  would  like  to  go  to  heaven," 
said  mamma. 

"  Oh  yes,  yes,  mamma  !  When  you  told  me 
about  it  I  watched  the  birds,  and  thought  if  I 
were  a  bird  I  would  fly  into  heaven.  But  you 
said,  "  When  you  have  pleased  God  long 
enough  on  earth  to  show  you  love  Him,  He 
will  send  for  you  and  take  you  to  heaven  more 
easily  than  the  birds  fly,  and  you  will  fall 
asleep  in  Jesus  and  wake  in  heaven.'  I  often 
dream  about  heaven,  mamma,  but  I  can  never 
remember  my  dreams  about  it ;  they  go  all 
away  when  I  open  my  eyes.  But  still  it's  all 
true." 

"Yes,  Willie,  true  as  this  beautiful  world. 
Do  you  know,  too,  that  dreaming  about  it 
shows  your  soul  is  thinking  of  heaven  ?  It 
shows  that  you  have  a  soul  whenever  you 
dream.  In  your  sleep  you  lie  still  on  your 
bed,  your  eyes  are  shut,  your  ears  don't  hear 
any  sound  in  the  quiet  dark  nursery.  But  yet, 
in  your  sleep,  when  you  dream,  are  you  not 
Willie  still?  Do  you  not  dream  of  walking, 
and  running,  and  playing,  and  that  nurse  is 


Willie's  rest.  35 

talking,  or  I  or  papa  am  talking?  Do  you 
not  sometimes  see  the  garden  in  your  sleep  ?" 
"  Yes,  yes,  mamma,  I  dream  all  those  things 
with  my  soul.  I  understand  about  my  soul  °I 
feel  it.  But  will  you,  please,  say  some  more 
about  Sunday  ?'■' 

"  We  were  talking  of  tlie  reasons  for  keep- 
ing it ;  all  of  them  such  good  reasons.  The 
best  reason  is  that  we  may  think  about  God 
and  thank  Him  for  His  good  gifts  and  His 
perfect  gift,  which  you  understood.  But, 
Willie,  there  are  other  reasons.  Sunday  is 
as  good  for  the  body  as  for  the  soul." 

"  So  you  said,  mamma,  at  first.  But  I  did 
not  quite  understand,  because  I  don't  feel  veiry 
tired  any  day  ;  and  you  said  their  bodies, 
people's  bodies,  I  mean,  were  to  rest  on  Sun- 
days." 

"  You  are  only  a  happy  little  child,  Willie, 
with  no  woi^Jc  to  do  except  trying  to  be  good 
and  to  learn  the  little  lessons  we  give  you. 
But  now,  listen  to  this.  Little  children  have 
80  much  time  for  play  and  pleasure,  and  their 
parents  work  for  them,  that  tliey  may  grow 


36  WILLIES   REST. 

up  into  strong  and  healthy  men  and  women, 
able  to  work  too.  For  little  children  are  al- 
ways growing,  and  if  they  were  made  to  work 
too  soon,  or  were  taught  too  much,  or  liad  not 
enough  time  for  play,  they  would  not  grow 
strong,  they  would  grow  much  slower,  and 
turn  into  sickly  miserable  men  and  women. 
That  is  God's  wise  law  to  parents,  and  kind 
love  for  little  children.  But  it  is  different  for 
men  and  women  ;  they  have  a  great  deal  to  do 
always,  and  ought  to  do  it  well.  But  if  they 
never  rest  their  bodies,  nor  stop  in  their  work, 
or  their  business,  they  cannot  be  well  nor 
strong.  But  I  will  tell  you  a  little  story  about 
it.     You  know  what  omnibuses  are, Willie?" 

"  Oh  yes,  mamma  ;  at  grandmamma's,  in 
London,  I  used  to  watch  them  out  of  the  win- 
dow :  long  coaches,  painted  different  colours, 
with  names  on  them,  and  two  horses — some- 
times three  horses,  mamma." 

"Yes,  Willie.  They  .want  very  strong 
horses,  too,  to  draw  tliem,  for  they  are  very 
heavy,  drawing  so  many  people.  You  know 
where  the  man  sits  who  drives,  Willie  ?" 


Willie's  rest.  37 

''  Yes,  mamma,  and  the  conductor  at  tlic 
other  end.'' 

"  Don't  von  think  it  must  be  hard  work 
Willie,  to  sit  on  that  high  seat,  and  drive  all 
day  ?     It  is  very  difficult  too." 

"Yes,  mamma,  I  wondered  the  coachman 
didn't  fall,  and  the  conductor  get  crushed  by 
the  carts  and  coaches  behind  him,  mamma." 

"  Well,  Willie,  there  was  once  a  man  who 
had  a  great  many  omnibuses  belonging  to  him, 
and  a  great  many  horses  to  draw  the  omni- 
buses, all  belonging  to  him  too.     That  man 
did   not   drive  himself,  but  he  paid  men    to 
drive  the  omnibuses.     And,  Willie,  that  man 
was  so  anxious  to  get  rich  that  he  forgot  all 
about  the  bodies  and  souls  of  tlie  men  who 
drove.     He   only  thought  of  getting  all  the 
money    he   could    from   people    who   wanted 
to  go  in  omnibuses,  every  day  of  the  week. 
He  made  the  men  drive  all  day  on  Sunday,  just 
as  on  the  other  days.     I  want  you  to  under- 
stand, Willie,  that  it  is  cruel  to  prevent  men 
who  work  hard  for  their  masters,  from  having 
time  to  rest  and  think." 
4 


38 


Willie's  rest. 


"  Yes,  mamma,"  said  Willie  very  eagerly, 
"  but  some  people  want  to  go  about  on  Sun- 
days. You  went  in  a  carriage  to  see  grand- 
mamma, when  she  was  ill  and  sent  for  you  on 
a  Sunday.  Must  people  walk  all  Sundays, 
even  if  they  want  to  ride,  and  see  people  they 
love  who  are  ill,  very  quickly  indeed?" 

"I  am  glad  you  asked  me  that  question, 
Willie.  It  is  quite  certain  that  it  is  right  to 
go  and  see  people  if  they  are  ill  on  Sunday, 
or  to  help  any  one  who  wants  help  ;  and  we 
ought  to  spare  no  trouble  if  we  can  help  people 
on°that  day.  Jesus  Christ  himself,  who,  you 
know,  is  to  be  our  example  always,  walked  in 
the  fields  on  Sunday  with  his  disciples,  and 
his  disciples  picked  some  of  the  corn  which 
was  growing  in  the  fields,  and  ate  it. 

"  Then  some  proud  naughty  men,  who  were 
iii  the  fields  too,  men  who  loved  to  find  fault, 
said  to  Jesus  Christ,  'Thy  disciples  are ^ doing 
what  is  not  right  on  the  Sabbath  day.'  But 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Master,  said  tliat  His  disci- 
ples were  doing  nothing  wrong  ;  and  He  said 
too,  that  if  an  ox  or  an  ass  fell  into  a  pit  od 


Willie's  rest.  og 

the  Sabbath  clay,  it  was  quite  right  to  go  and 
take  them  out,  lest  they  should  be  hurt  or 
hungry  at  the  bottom  of  tlie  pit. 

"Then  the  Master,  Jesus  Christ,  liealed  a 
man  on  the  Sabbath  day,  and  made  him  quite 
well,  tliough  he  had  been  thirty-eio-],t  years  very 
111  indeed. 

"Again,  the  Master,  Jesus  Christ,  made  the 
arm  of  a  man  which  was  weak,  so  that  he  could 
nof  use  It,  quite  strong  on  the  Sabbath  day. 

"  It  is  quite  riglit  to  use  coaches  and  horses 
on  Sunday,  if  we  want,  and  are  ohUrjed  to  -o 
anywhere  very  quickly.     But  I  will  tell  you 
wliy  the  man  who  had  the  omnibuses  was  so 
cruel  and  so  wrong.     He  had  cdl  the  omnibuses 
out  on  Sunday,  and  he  ought  only  to  have  had 
^  few  out;  just  enough  for  people  who  were 
Miged  to  go  by  them.     He  made  all  the  men 
Irive  all  Sunday :    now  he  should   have   let 
^acli  man  only  drive  for  oge  journey  on  Sunday. 
>y  journey,  I  mean  from  the  place  wliere  the 
nimbuses  start  to  the  place  wliere  they  stop, 
or  they  go  many  and  many  times  backwards 
nd  forwards  in  one  day.     If  he  had  only  let 


40  Willie's  rest. 

each  man  drive  once  on  a  Sunday,  each  man 
would  have  had  the  rest  of  Sunday  to  himself. 
And  all  omnibus  owners,  who  are  good  and  kind, 
give  each  driver  a  whole  Sunday  sometimes. 

"  I  will  tell  you  what  happened  to  this  mas- 
ter, who  was  cruel  and  wrong  in  his  behaviour 
to  the  men.  The  poor  men  were  so  tired  with 
driving  all  days,  and  so  full  of  trouble  in  their 
minds  from  having  no  time  to  rest  or  think,  that 
tliey  grew  to  care  for  nothing  ;  they  only  cared 
to  drink  strong  burning  drinks,  which  made 
them  stupid  ;  and,  at  last,  they  drove  so  badly, 
from  not  knowino;  what  thev  were  doino*,  that 

O  ^  CD' 

people  were  afraid  to  go  in  the  omnibuses,  for 
fear  they  should  be  daslied  against  other  car- 
riages, in  the  omnibuses  which  were  so  badly 
driven  :  and  that  you  know  might  have  hurt 
them  very  much.  So  the  man  got  less  and  less 
money.  Then  many  of  his  horses  died  because 
they  had  w^orked  too  hard  ;  for  lie  never  gave 
his  horses  any  rest  any  more  than  the  men. 
So  he  had  to  buy  new  horses,  and  liorses  cost 
a  great  deal  of  money,  so  that  instead  of  get- 
ting ricli  he  got  poorer  and  poorer.     Perhaps, 


Willie's  rest.  4^ 

when  l,e  was  poor,  I.e  rcncnberod  r,-l,at  he 
had  done,  and  thought  it  was  a  right  punish- 
ment ;  and  I  liopo  then  that  he  learned  it  was 
good  and  useful,  as  well  as  right,  for  men  to 
.■est,  and  let  all  creatures  that  work  rest,  on 
bunday." 

"  Yes,  mamma,  I  hope  he  did.    Please  tell 
me  some  more." 

"Shall  I  tell  you  what  a  man  made  another 
man   do,   that  was   very   wrong    indeed,    all 
tlirough  not  resting  on  Sunday?     This  man 
was  a  lawyer,     ^-o^y  I  cannot  tell  all  that  a 
lawyer  does,  because  you  would  not  understand 
It,  but  I  can  tell  you  that  he  has  a  great  deal 
to  do  in  helping  other  people  in  their  business 
and   in   telling    them  how   to    manage   their 
money  :  aud  he  has  a  great  deal  of  writing  to 
do,  and  a  great  many  books  to  read  and  re- 
member all  through,  about  laws  for  making 
people  behave  well-which  we  call  the  laws 
of  men,  just  as  the  commandments  are  the  laws 
of  God.     This  lawyer  I  am  telling  vou  of  had 
^o  much  writing  to  do  that  he  kept  a  man  to 
telp  him.     This  man  was  much  younger  than 
4* 


42  WILLIE  S   REST. 

he  was,  and,  of  course,  looked  up  to  him  as 
an  example,  tliinking  lie  must  know  more  than 
he  did  himself,  because  he  was  older  and  very 
clever  too. 

Now  this  clever  lawyer,  like  the  omnibus 
man,  wanted  to  get  rich  very  fast.  So  he  sat 
all  day  on  Sunday,  as  well  as  other  days, 
writing  in  his  dull  room,  full  of  dull  books, 
dull  papers,  and  dusty  boxes.  He  could  not 
make  the  young  man  write  too  on  Sunday,  but 
he  could  tempt  him,  and  did  tempt  him  :  tried 
to  make  him  write  too  on  Sunday,  by  saying 
sometimes  on  Saturday  night,  when  he  had 
more  writing  to  do  than  usual,  '  If  you  will 
come  to-morrow,  and  help  me  all  day  to  write, 
I  will  pay  you  for  it,  and  you  will  get  more 
than  if  you  did  nothing  all  day.' 

''  The  money  was  a  great  temptation  to  the 
young  man,  and  very  often  he  came  on  Sunday 
to  the  dull  room,  sat  at  the  dull  desk  on  the 
high  stool  he  used  other  days,  and  wrote  dull 
copies  of  papers  all  day. 

"  He  was  paid  for  that  sad  work  on  the  day 
of  rest ;   and,  I  think  that  seeing  his  master 


Willie's  rest.  43 

work  too  all  Sunday,  made  liini  think  Sunday 
rest  did  not  matter  ;  and,  besides,  he  got  too 
fond  of  money,  from  being  paid  for  that  sad 
work  on  Sunday.  For  no  good  came  of  either 
the  work  on  Sunday,  or  the  Sunday  money  ; 
as  you  shall  hear.  From  being  so  much  in  his 
master's  room,  he  knew  where  his  master  kept 
his  money. 

"  One  Sunday  night,  after  his  master  had 
gone  home  and  he  had  been  sent  away,  lie  came 
to  the  place  where  they  wrote — which  was  a 
dull  house  with  that  dark  room  in  it,  and  all 
the  other  rooms  dull  and  empty. 

"  The  young  man  knew  the  door  was  locked, 
but  he  had  got  a  key  to  fit  it,  called  a  false 
key  ;  and  he  opened  the  door  and  got  into  the 
dull  room,  and  broke  open  the  dusty  box,  and 
stole  all  the  money  out  of  it.  Of  course  it  was 
not  all  the  money  his  master  had,  but  still  it 
was  a  great  deal :  not  gold  or  silver,  but  bank- 
notes, which  are  worth  just  as  much  as  gold 
and  silver,  and  which  are  easier  to  carry 
about.  When  the  young  man  had  put  the 
bank  notes  in  his  pocket,  he  ran  away. 


44 

"  Next  morning  his  master  came  ;  for  he  did 
not  live  in  the  dull  house,  except  when  he  was 
writing.  And  he  found  the  desk  broken  open 
and  no  bank-notes.  The  young  man  did  not 
come  to  write  that  day  ;  so  the  master  guessed 
he  had  stolen  the  notes. 

"  Now  there  are  figures  on  bank-notes,  all 
different ;  so  the  master  sent  to  the  people  who 
kept  the  banks,  and  told  them  the  figures  on 
the  bank-notes  he  had  lost,  begging  the  bankers 
not  to  give  anybody  money  for  the  bank-notes, 
if  they  took  them  there  to  be  changed.  And 
the  policemen  were  all  told  what  the  young 
man  was  like,  and  being  very  clever  men,  they 
found  him  in  a  few  days.  They  found  him  on 
a  steam-ship,  which  was  just  going  from  Liver- 
pool to  America  ;  where  I  suppose  the  young 
man  thought  he  should  be  able  to  spend  the 
money. 

''  When  he  saw  the  policemen  come  on  the 
steamer,  and  saw  them  looking  at  him,  he 
knew  he  was  found  out ;  and  in  his  fright  he 
tore  all  the  bank-notes  up,  and  threw  them 
overboard,  and  they  floated  away  to  the  sea, 


WILLIE'S   REST.  45 

of  CO  use  to  anybody.  And  tlie  policemen 
took  liim  back  to  the  place  where  the  lawyer 
lived,  and  to  the  magistrate  of  the  place,  that 
he  might  be  asked  about  his  wickedness.  The 
magistrate  was  in  a  large  hall,  and  many  other 
gentlemen  were  there,  and  among  them  the 
lawyer  too. 

"  When  the  magistrate  asked  the  young 
man  why  he  had  stolen  the  money,  as  he  had 
never  stolen  any  money  before,  wliat  do  you 
think  the  young  man  said  ?  He  said,  and  as 
he  spoke,  he  looked  at  the  lawyer's  face,  '  I 
thought  that  there  could  be  no  more  harm  in 
breaking  the  commandment,  "  Thou  slialt  not 
steal,"  than  in  breaking  the  commandment 
which  says,  "  Thou  shalt  keep  holy  the  Sab- 
bath-day, and  do  no  work."  ' 

"  I  think  the  lawyer  must  have  felt  wretched 
and  wrong  too,  when  he  remembered  he  had 
lost  his  money,  and  made  a  young  man  steal , 
because  he  tuould  not  remember  the  kind,  good 
law  of  the  great  God  which  says  we  are  to  rest 
on  Sunday." 

"  Did   the  lawyei   remember  afterwards  to 


46  Willie's  kest. 

rest,   mamma,   to   rest    on 
Willie. 

'•  Yes,  Willie,  I  am  glad  to  say  he  did.  He 
did  not  write  again  on  Sunday  :  at  first  it  was 
only  from  fear,  fear  that  God  would  be  very 
angry  with  him  that  lie  did  not  write.  But 
having  time  to  rest  and  think  about  good 
things,  he  learned  at  last  to  rest  on  Sunday  be- 
cause he  loved  God,  and  His  commandments. 

''  The  young  man,  too,  who  was  punished  for 
his  stealing  the  money,  by  being  sent  in  a  ship 
to  a  country  far  away  from  his  home,  never 
forgot  the  lesson  either,  and  behaved  well,  and 
learned  to  keep  God's  commandments  in  that 
far  country." 

"  Tell  me  some  more  about  resting,  please 
dear  mamma :  about  a  little  child  this  time, 
for  you  have  only  told  me  about  men.  Tell 
me  a  paral)le,  mamma  :  a  story  with  a  mean- 
ing in  it,  that  I  may  guess  the  meaning,  like 
the  fairy  tales  you  tell  me  in  week  days,  play- 
ing and  working  days,  mamma." 

Willie  knew  that  it  did  not  tire  mamma  to 
tell  stories  ;  she  had  so  many  in  her  mind  al- 


WILLIES   KEST.  47 

ways.  So  she  tlioiiglit  a  minute  or  two,  and 
while  she  thought,  Willie  watclied  a  white 
butterfly,  that  was  resting  on  a  rose. 

"  God  makes  a  place  even  for  tlie  butterfly 
to  rest  on,''  Willie  thought.  "Mamma  told 
me  I  must  not  touch  a  butterfly,  because  it  was 
so  delicate,  and  had  such  soft  dust  on  its 
wings  to  keep  it  warm,  that  I  should  rub  off 
the  dust  and  hurt  the  butterfly.  But  the  rose 
does  not  hurt  the  butterfly,  because  the  rose- 
leaves  are  so  soft ;  so  the  butterfly  rests  on  the 
rose.     How  pretty  !" 

Then  the  butterfly  flew  away  again,  and 
Willie  looked  up  in  mamma's  face  again  ;  and 
mamma  began  a  story  she  had  thought  about, 
with  a  meaning  to  it,  for  Willie  to  guess. 

"  There  was  a  child  who  lived  in  a  little 
house  just  big  enough  for  him,  in  a  valley  at 
the  bottom  of  a  high  hill.  Wild  flowers  grew 
in  the  valley,  and  there  were  bushes  with  wild 
fruits  and  berries,  nice  and  proper  to  eat. 
But  there  were  so  many  stones  in  the  valley 
that  no  fine  flowers  nor  fine  fruit  trees  had 
room  to  strike  their  roots. 


48 


"  And  when  tlie  child  was  very  little  indeed, 
he  ate  tlie  wild-fruits  and  berries,  and  drank 
tlie  water  from  a  little  stream  ;  and  then  he 
played  with  the  stones,  and  piled  them  up  into 
shapes,  or  made  garlands  and  nosegays  of  the 
wild-flowers  all  day  long. 

"  But  when  lie  was  a  very  little  older,  he  be- 
gan to  wonder  why  so  many  stones  were  there, 
and  where  the  hill  went  to,  that  he  saw  go  up 
towards  the  sky,  from  the  valley  where  he 
lived. 

"  One  day  he  was  sitting  with  his  lap  full  of 
wild-flowers,  which  he  was  tired  of  playing 
with,  and  he  was  wondering  as  usual  about  the 
stones  and  the  hill.  And  from  the  hill  he  saw 
coming  towards  him  a  grown-up  man.  He  was 
frightened  at  first,  but  not  when  the  man  came 
near  enough  for  the  child  to  see  his  face,  which 
was  kind,  and  mild,  and  peaceful.  He  came 
quite  up  to  the  child,  and  then  he  began  to 
speak  in  gentle  tones,  and  the  cliild  listened  to 
his  words. 

•' '  There  is  a  ricli,  good,  and  powerful  friend 
of  yours,  little  child,'  he  said, '  and  that  friend 


Willie's  rest.  49 

lives  in  a  palace  with  fair  gardens,  at  the  very 
top  of  the  Iiill.  He  knows  all  about  you  :  he 
n^ade  this  house  for  you  to  live  in,  and  this 
valley  for  you  to  rejoice  in,  and  work  in  when 
you  are  older.  He  watches  you,  though  you 
do  not  know  it,  and  cannot  see  him. 

"'If  you  please  him  after  I  have  told  you 
about  him,  if  you  always  behave  well  in  the 
valley,  you  will  some  day  be  allowed  to  enter 
the  palace-gates,  and  live  in  his  fair  gardens, 
and  see  him  who  is  the  fairest  of  all.  You 
cannot  see  him  yet,  while  you  live  in  the  val- 
ley  ;  he  will  send  for  you  to  live  with  him 
when  he  knows  it  is  time  for  you  to  go. 

"  ^^But  he  loves  you  so  much,  that  he  wishes 
to  give  you  something  noiv,  to  make  you  happy, 
and  to  remind  you  of  his  love  and  care  for 
you.  And  he  wrote  you  a  letter,  and  sent  it  to 
me  to  give  you  :  for  though  I  liave  not  seen 
lim,  I  often  hear  from  him,  and  I  live  very 
lear  the  toj3  of  the  hill,  just  outside  the  palace 
rates.' 

' '  But  I  cannot  read  a  letter,'  said  the  little 
;hild,  beginning  to  pick  up  flowers  again. 
5 


50  Willie's  rest. 

"  '  I  will  read  it  to  you,  then  ;  and  you  must 
listen,  for  if  you  do  what  it  says,  it  will  be 
very  good  for  you.' 

"  So  the  child  listened,  because  it  was  some- 
thing new. 

"  '  There  will  always  be  stones  in  your  valley, 
little  child,'  the  letter  began,  as  long  as  you 
live  there,  because  the  sides  of  the  valley  are 
rock,  and  the  pieces  break  off  whenever  there 
is  w^ind  or  storm,  and  roll  down  among  the 
grass  and  wild  plants,  choking  up  the  roots. 
The  stones  are  there  to  remind  you  how  much 
more  beautiful  is  my  palace,  which  is  built  of 
precious  stones,  like  light,  and  hqw  much  more 
green  and  lovely  with  flowers  that  never  die, 
is  my  glorious  garden. 

" '  But  now  I  am  going  to  tell  you  a  way  to 
get  rid  of  a  few  of  those  troublesome  stones, 
just  near  your  little  house.  And  when  you 
have  got  rid  of  a  few  stones,  I  will  give  you 
some  grains  of  wdieat  to  sow  in  the  cleared 
ground,  and  some  seeds  of  flowers  to  make 
your  garden  pleasant  when  they  have  sprung 
up  and  blossomed.    Take  a  basket,  and  fill  it 


Willie's  rest.  51 

with  stones,  as  many  stones  as  you  can  carry 
and  then  set  out,  with  your  basket  on  your 
arm,  up  the  mountain-patli  which  leads  to  my 
palace-gates,  inside  of  which  are  my  beautiful 
gardens. 

"  '  The  road  is  steep,  for  it  is  up-hill  all  the 
way.  But  there  is  on  one  side  of  the  road  a 
thick  wood,  which  goes  up  the  hill  all  the  way 
too.  Here  and  there,  at  regular  distances, 
there  are  little  paths  which  lead  aside,  out  of 
the  way,  under  the  trees.  At  the  end  of  each 
little  path,  in  the  shade  of  the  wood,  there  is  a 
deep  well,  full  of  clear  fresh  water. 

"  '  Now,  little  child,  remember  not  to  go  on 
straight  up  the  hill  without  resting,  but  turn  aside 
at  every  little  opening  in  the  wood,  and  go  out 
of  the  way  to  find  the  well.  Sit  down  by  the 
well  to  rest,  under  the  shade  of  the  trees,  which 
will  cool  you  after  walking  up-hill  in  the  sun  ; 
and  drink  a  draught  of  the  water,  which  will 
rcfresli  you  far  more  than  the  stream  of  the 
valley. 

"' '  And  remember  particularly,  after  you  have 
'ested   and  been  refreshed,  to  take  one  stone 


52  Willie's  best. 

out  of  your  basket  and  drop  it  into  the  well, 
for  the  well  is  so  deep  the  stone  will  never  be 
found  again.  And  when  you  have  dropped  the 
stone,  go  out  of  the  wood,  and  go  on  up  tlie 
hill.  Only  remember  to  stop  at  every  opening 
in  the  wood,  aud  turn  aside  to  find  the  well, 
and  drop  the  stone  therein  ;  and  if  you  do  so, 
you  will  find  your  basket  empty  and  light  by 
the  time  you  reach  the  top  of  the  hill. 

"  '  Then  you  will  see  the  dwelling  of  my 
messenger,'  whom  I  send  with  this  letter  to 
you.  It^is  just  outside  my  palace-gates,  and 
my  high  palace-walls,  which  are  so  high  that 
no  one  can  see  the  palace  towers,  nor  the  tops 
of  the  trees,  whose  leaves  never  fall  in  my  gar- 
den, until  the  gates  are  opened  to  them,  and 
they  are  called  to  come  and  live  with  me. 

"  *  The  house  of  my  messenger  stands  in  a 
garden,  and  his  garden  has  fairer  flowers  and 
better  corn  in  it,  tlian  all  your  wild-flowers 
and  fruits,  for  my  own  gardener  gave  the  seeds 
and'the  corn  to  my.  messenger,  because  he  loved 
me,  and  promised  that  he  would  come  and 
giv^  my  letter  to  you,  little  child.  , 

i 
1 


Willie's  best.  53 

"  '  It  was  because  he  loved  me  that  I  called 
him  to  live  so  near  my  palace-gates,  and  gave 
him  seeds  2p:l  grains  of  tlie  fairest  flowers,  and 
the  whitest  wheat,  to  sow  in  his  garden,  and 
to  give  to  little  children  who  follow  my  com- 
mands.    When  you  arrive  at  the  house  of  my 
messenger,  knock  at  the  door,  and  he  will  open 
it ;  and  if  your  basket  is  empty,  he  will  fill  it 
with  seeds  of  sweeter  flowers  than  you  have 
ever  made  garlands  of  in  the  valley,  and  grains 
of  white  wheat  such  as  you  have  never  rubbed 
from  the  ear.     Then  you  will  return  happily 
down  the  hill,  so  easy  to  go  doiun ;  and  you 
will  be  able  to  sow  the  seeds  and  the  wheat  in 
the  space  from  which  you   have   taken    the 
stones  ;  and  they  will  spring  up  to  nourish 
you,  and  to  give  you  much  pleasure.' 

"'Now,'  said  the  messenger  to  the  little 
child,  '  Will  you  really  carry  the  basket  of 
stones,  and  turn  aside  at  every  opening,  to 
throw  one  stone  into  the  water,  and  rest  beside 
the  well  ?' 

" '  Why  cannot  I  turn  the  stones  out  all  at 
)nce?'  asked  the  ch'ild, '  it  would  be  much  eas|£r.' 
5* 


54  / 
/  - 

"  *  All  the  stones  would  trouble  the  water  of 
one  well,'  said  the  messenger.  '  That  is  why 
it  is  so  wise  of  your  kind  Friend  to  tell  you 
only  to  drop  one  stone  into  each  well.  If  you 
do  not  take  the  basket  empty,  I  can  give  you 
no  seeds.  For  if  you  do  not  shew  that  you 
love  your  Friend  enough  to  obey  him  in  such 
a  little  thing,  which  is  so  good  for  you  besides, 
you  must  know  he  will  not  give  you  either  the 
great  things  which  shew  His  love.  And  if 
you  shew  your  little  love  to  him,  you  will  know 
some  day  with  wliat  a  great  love  he  has  loved^ 
you.  Wij4  you  really  obey  him,  little  child,  in 
this  kind  'wish  for  your  good  ?' 

"  Now,  as  it  was  something  new,  the  child 
thought  he  would  try.  I  am  afraid  he  did  not 
tliink  much  about  the  love  of  his  wonderful 
Friend. 

" '  It  is  a  very  easy  thing  to  do,'  said  the 
child  to  the  messenger,  '  I  will  set  out  to-mor- 
row ;  then  I  shall  have  finished  this  garland  I 
am  making.' 

"  '  Better  to  go  to-day  than  to-morrow,'  said 
the  messenger  ;    '  but  better  to-morrow   than 


55 


not  at  all.  So,  little  child,  I  sliall  expect  to  see 
you  at  my  house,  and  I  hope  your  basket  will 
be  empty.' 

"  Then  the  messenger  went  back  up  the  hill 
to  his  house  near  the  palace  of  his  and  the 
child's  great  Friend. 

"  Next  mornino:  the  child  arose,  and  took  a 
basket  that  was  in  his  cottage,  and  filled  it  with 
stones,  and  then  slung  the  basket  on  his  arm, 
and  set  out  on  his  journey  up  the  hill.  The 
way  was  steep,  but  smooth,  and  on  each  side 
were  bright  stones,  quite  different  from  those 
in  the  basket :  stones  clear  as  crystal,  which 
reflected  the  sun's  light  in  every  colour  of  the 
sun  and  rainbow. 

"  The  child  picked  up  one  of  the  bright 
stones  and  looked  at  i^  admiring  it  very 
much  ;  and  while  he  was  looking  at  it,  he 
came  to  the  first  opening  in  the  wood.  Being 
quite  a  new  thing,  he  remembered  it,  and 
threw  the  bright  stone  away,  and  turned  aside 
under  the  trees,  till  he  came  to  the  well,  which 
was  indeed  clear,  and  deep,  and  cool. 

"  He  dropped  the  stone  in,  and  it  fell  quite 


56  Willie's  rest. 

out  of  sight ;  and  then  he  dipped  his  hand  into 
the  well,  and  took  up  some  water  in  its  hol- 
low, and  the  water  refreshed  him  as  no  other 
water  had  ever  refreshed  him  before.  And  he 
rested  a  little  while  by  the  well. 

"  Then  he  took  up  the  basket,  and,  feeling 
strengthened  and  revived,  he  went  out  of  the 
wood,  and  proceeded  up  the  steep  path  of  the 
liill. 

"  But  before  he  reached  the  opening  which 
led  to  the  next  well,  he  had  picked  up  another 
bright  stone,  and  thought  it  even  prettier  than 
the  first.  And  he  did  not  want  to  throw  the 
bright  stone  away,  so  he  just  ran  aside,  and 
threw  another  stone  out  of  the  basket  into  the 
well ;  but  he  put  the  bright  stone  into  the  bas- 
ket instead,  so  that  it  was  just  as  lieavy  ;  and 
by  the  time  he  reached  the  third  opening,  he 
thought  it  a  great  trouble  to  go  aside  at  all. 

" '  If  I  do  find  the  basket  heavy,'  he  said, 
'  it  is  my  business,  and  this  turning  aside  is 
very  troublesome ;  so  is  sitting  down  beside 
the  well,  it  only  takes  up  ray  time  ;  I  should 
be  much  quicker  if  I  went  straight  on  :  and  I 


Willie's  rest.  57 

can  turn  all  the  stones  out  at  the  top  of  the 
hill  togetLer.' 

"  But  he  did  not  get  on  faster,  because  the 
basket  was  so  heavy  ;  and  he  stayed  so  long  to 
play  with  the  bright  stones,  and  not  liking  to 
throw  them  away,  he  piled  as  many  as  he  could 
on  the  top  of  the  other  stones  in  his  basket,  so 
that  it  grew  heavier  and  heavier.  And  when 
he  reached  the  top  of  tlie  hill,  and  saw  the 
house  of  the  messenger,  close  to  those  high 
walls  over  which  no  eye  could  see  (until  the 
opening  of  the  gate),  then  he  stood  still  to 
admire  the  lovely  flowers  which  grew  in  the 
garden  of  the  messenger,  and  the  beautiful 
golden  corn,  waving  in  his  field. 

"  And  the  child  in  great  haste  opened  the 
garden  gate,  and  walking  up  to  the  house, 
knocked  at  the  door. 

"  *  Open  quickly,'  said  the  child,  '  for  I  did 
not  know  how  fair  were  the  flowers  till  I  saw 
them,  or  how  beautiful  was  the  golden  corn.' 

"  And  the  messenger  opened  the  door.  Then 
said  the  child,  '  I  have  come  for  my  flower- 
seeds,  and  the  grains  of  white  wheat.' 


58  Willie's  rest. 

"  But  the  messenger  shook  liis  head.  '  They 
are  not  for  you,  they  cannot  be  for  you,  0  lit- 
tle child.  The  basket  is  piled  up,  full  :  not 
only  with  the  heavy  stones  of  the  valley,  but 
with  the  bright  stones  of  the  hill.' 

"  '  Oh,  but  I  can  empty  it,'  said  the  thought- 
less child,  and  ran  out  of  the  garden  to  the  top 
of  the  hill,  turning  out  the  basket  there.  But 
the  stones  all  rolled  down  the  smooth  hill 
again  into  the  valley  ! 

"  '  There,'  said  the  messenger,  '  the  stones 
will  choke  up  the  space  again  from  which  you 
took  them,  and  there  will  be  no  room  to  plant 
either  seeds  or  grains  of  wheat.  And  as  for  tlie 
bright  stones,  it  was  wrong  of  you  to  carry 
them  in  your  basket  ;  they  are  put  there  to 
make  the  way  up-hill  look  pleasant  :  my  Mas- 
ter, your  kind  friend,  put  them  tliere,  but  you 
ought  not  to  have  taken  tliem  away.  You 
were  told  only  to  bring  the  stones  of  the  valley 
in  your  basket.' 

"  '  Will  you  give  me  no  seeds,  no  wheat, 
though  I  have  come  all  the  way  ?'  asked  the 
child,  feeling  angry. 


69 


" '  I  can  only  give  tliem  to  those  who  love 
the  great  Friend,  my  Master,  and  shew  their 
love  in  obeying  his  kind  commands,"  said  tlie 
messenger.  I  am  very  sorry,  but  I  must  do  as 
he  has  told  me,  for  he  is  always  right.' 
^•'  Then  the  messenger  shut  tlie  door  ;  and  in 
vain  the  child  knocked,  in  vain  he  cried  ;  no 
messenger  returned  to  open  the  door.  And 
the  child  had  to  go  back  wearily,  wearily,  with 
the  empty  basket  on  his  arm,  because  he  had 
not  obeyed  the  commands  in  the  letter,  those 
easy  commands  of  the  rich  and  kind  Friend, 
who,  because  he  had  not  obeyed  them,  had, 
through  his  messenger,  sent  him  empty  away.*' 

"  Is  that  all,  mamma  ?"  asked  Willie,  for 
mamma's  voice  stopped.  "  Oh,  did  the  child 
never  dro-p  the  stones  right  after  all  ?" 

"  I^  he  did,  Willie,  he  must  have  been  very 
tired  with  his  double  journey — as  people  are 
tired  tvho  begin  late  to  love  God.  But  do  you 
understand  my  little  story,  Willie  ?" 

"  I  think  I  do,  mamma.  At  least,  I  think 
the  turnings  in  the  road  leading  to  the  well, 
mean  Sundays,  because  he  was  to  rest  by  the 


60  Willie's  rest. 

well  a  little.    But  the  water  he  drank,  mamma, 
and  the  stones,  what  were  they  ?" 

"  There  is  a  text,  Willie,  in  which  Christ 
himself  says,  '  The  water  which  I  shall  give 
you,  will  be  in  you  a  well  of  water  springing 
up  into  everlasting  life.'  There  is  a  meaning  to 
those  words.  They  mean,  tliat  the  love  of  God, 
given  to  ns  through  Christ's  love,  is  deep  and 
pure,  and  refreshing,  as  the  wells  of  clear  water. 
It  refreshes  the  souls  of  those  who  go  to  seek 
it  where  it  may  be  found,  and  surely  it  is  to  be 
found  on  Sundays,  our  times  of  rest. 

"  The  stones  are  troubles,  or  cares,  Willie. 
We  may  all  get  rid  of  the  trouble  nearest  to 
us,  or  the  care  which  makes  us  most  afraid,  on 
Sunday,  may  we  not  ?  We  need  not  think  of 
them,  we  mav  forsiet  them  alto^'etlier.  And  so 
we  shall  lose  them  in  the  deep  water  of  that 
well  of  love,  just  as  the  stone  dropped  out  of 
sight,  and  made  tlie  basket  lighter. 

"  As  for  the  bright  stones  which  adorn  the 
road,  they  are  pleasures  given  by  God  to  make 
our  way  of  life  pleasant ;  but  if  we  hold  them 
too  tiglit.  they  become  a  burden  to  us,  just  as 
thev  made  the  child's  basket  heavier. 


Willie's  kest.  61 

''  As  for  the  seeds  of  tlic  fiiir  flowers,  and 
the  grains  of  wheat,  I  dare  say  you  can  under- 
stand that  I  meant  the  heavenly  blessings,  so 
much  more  delightful  than  all  their  earthly 
pleasures  to  the  souls  of  those  wlio  love  God, 
and  ash  for  them,  keeping  His  commandments 
also,  to  show  their  love." 

"  Yes,  mamma,  and  I  think  the  messenger 
means  the  clergyman,  because  he  lived  so  near 
the  palace.  You  said  church  was  near  to 
heaven,  mamma,  because  it  is  made  to  think 
about  God  in.  Then  he  brought  a  letter  to 
the  little  child,  from  the  great  Friend  v/hom 
the  child  could  not  see  till  he  died.  And  he 
read  the  letter  to  the  child,  as  the  clergyman 
preaches  to  us." 

'  A  very  good  meaning,  Willie." 

'  And  the  high  wall  shut  out  the  towers,  I 
mean  you  could  not  see  them  :  and  you  could 
not  see  the  trees  over  the  wall,  nor  the  leaves 
which  never  faded.  That  must  be  heaven, 
namma,  for  we  cannot  see  it  till  we  die. 

"  But  oh  !  mamma,  I  hope  the  child  dropped 
he  stones  right  after  all.  I  hope  he  kept 
6 


.62  WILLIE'S   REST. 

Sundays  a  whole  year,  mamma,  afterwards  ; 
for  I  think  it  meant  he  was  a  whole  year 
spending  Sundays  without  rest ;  because  he 
had  to  go  had: :  and  you  told  me  we  went  hack 
if  we  were  not  good,  that  we  did  not  stand 
still.  But  please  to  tell  me  a  good  parable  ; 
that  is  so  sad  a  one.  T  wish  I  miglit  hoar  one 
about  a  child  who  kept  Sundays  well." 

Mamma  thought  a  few  minutes,  and  tlien  she 
went  on,  saying, 

"  There  was  a  little  child,  wliose  parents 
gave  him  everything  he  could  desire.  The 
house  in  which  he  lived  was  beautifully  fur- 
nished, containing  many  rooms  wliich  were 
filled  with  pictures  and  books,  and  curiosities 
from  many  countries.  Everything  wanted  for 
use  or  ornament  was  to  be  found  in  the  house, 
besides  many  toys  for  the  child's  amusement. 
There  were  also  plenty  of  dresses  for  it  to 
wear,  dresses  for  summer  and  for  winter  ;  and 
there  were  servants  to  wait  on  it  and  prepare 
its  meals,  and  masters  to  teach  it  all  that  a 
child  is  able  to  learn.  Round  the  house  was  a 
garden  full  of  flowers,  fruits  and  fountains,] 


Willie's  rest.  g3 

groves  and  arbours  ;  and  many  otlicr  little 
children  lived  in  houses  near,  and  came  to  play 
with  this  child  as  often  as  he  pleased  ;  go  that 
he  had  nothing  left  to  wish  for. 

"  And  when  his  parents  had  shown  him  all 
the  things  they  had  provided  for  him,  they  said 
to  him,  '  Now  we  are  going  to  tell  you  what 
you  nmst  do,  in  order  to  preserve  these  bless- 
ings, and  gain  greater  ones  when  you  die/ 

"  So  they  led  the  little  child  upstairs,  to  a 
small  chamber  at  the  top  of  the  house.  There 
was  no  furniture  in  it ;  but  there  was  a  bird- 
cage hanging  in  the  window,  and  the  window 
was  very  large,  looking  over  the  gardens  to 
the  east,  where  the  sun  rose.  In  the  cage  was 
a  white  bird,  with  very  soft  eyes,  whose  ex- 
pression was  half  sad,  half  sweet.  There  was 
no  seed  in  the  cage,  and  no  glass  of  water. 

Why,"  said  the  little  child,  looking  at  the 
bird  through  the  wires,  which  were  made  of 
iron,  and  very  strong,  '  what  does  the  bird  live 
3n  ?  for  I  see  neither  seed  nor  water,  nor  green 
;hick-weed,  such  as  other  birds  like  to  eat.' 
" '  This  bird  is  not  like  other  birds/  said  his 


64  Willie's  best. 

father  ;  '  it  is  a  rare  bird  from  a  far  couutry. 
It  is  sad  in  its  cage,  yet  cannot  get  out  unless 
the  door  is  opened,  for  you  see  how  strong  are 
the  wires.  Its  only  food  is  the  dew  which 
falls  early  in  the  morning,  just  l)efore  the  sun 
rises  ;  the  food  of  other  birds  would  poison  it, 
it  is  so  very  delicate.  And  it  belongs  entirely 
to  you  ;  you  are  to  take  care  of  it,  and  see  that 
it  is  fed.' 

"  '  How,  then  ?'  asked  the  child  :  '  I  cannot 
catcii  the  dew  in  the  bottle  ;  it  falls  too  softly 
to  be  seen,  xlnd  there  is  no  dew  now,  because 
it  is  afternoon.' 

"  '  Not  now/  said  the  child's  mother,  '  but 
to-morrow  morning  there  will  be  dew.  You 
must  come  upstairs  into  this  chamber  every 
morning,  and  first  open  the  window  wide,  and 
then  the  door  of  the  cage.  The  bird  will  fly 
out  gladly,  far  up  into  the  sky  towards  the 
east,  and  will  open  its  bill  wide  to  catch  the  dew. 

"  '  And   lest  it  should  fly  too  .far,  or  stay 
out  of  the  cage  too  long,  and  be  too  tired  to , 
fly  back  again,  you  must  keep  your  eyes  fixed, 
on  it  for  one  liour,  that  is  from  the  first  drop- 


Willie's  lest.  65 

ping  of  the  dew  till  the  rising  of  the  sun. 
When  the  sun  rises,  you  must  call  it  back,  by 
singing  a  few  notes  which  we  will  teach  you. 
And  wlien  it  has  returned  to  its  cage,  refresh- 
ed, you  must  shut  the  door  ;  and  then  your  task 
will  be  ended.' 

"  Then  the  child's  father  spoke  again.  *  If 
you  do  this  thing  every  day,  exactly  as  we 
have  told  you,  we  shall  continue  to  love  you 
and  make  your  life  pleasant.  And  the  bird  so 
much  belongs  to  you,  and  to  you  only,  that  as 
long  as  you  are  careful  to  open  its  door  in  the 
morning,  and  to  watch  for  its  return,  it  will  be 
refreslied  and  able  to  sing  its  low,  sweet  songs 
all  day  ;  and  you  will  be  well  and  happy, 
your  lessons  will  be  easy  to  you,  your  plays 
pleasant,  your  sleep  peaceful,  and  your  dreams 
of  great  delight.' 

"  '  But,'  said  his  mother  again,  '  if  you  forget 
to  open  the  door  of  the  cage  any  one  morning, 
the  bird,  for  want  of  its  delicate  food,  the 
dew,  will  droop  and  leave  off  singing.  Then 
will  you  be  no  longer  well,  nor  happy.  Your 
lessons  will  be  labour,  your  plays  trouble,  your 
6* 


Q6  WILLIE'S    REST. 

sleep  restless,  and  your  dreams  of  great  dark- 
ness.' 

"  '  I  will  try/  said  the  child,  '  never  to  for- 
get what  I  have  to  do.  I  should  be  very  sorry 
indeed  to  lose  the  bird,  for  it  is  white  as  a 
dove,  and  its  eyes  are  very  soft,  though  they 
are  rather  sad  :  I  suppose  because  it  is  not  in 
its  own  land.' 

" '  Some  day  it  will  return  to  its  own  land,' 
said  the  child's  parents  both  at  once.  '  And 
that  is  not  a  greater  wonder  than  that  you 
shall  return  to  God  when  you  die  ;  and  all 
children  also.' 

"  '  We  shall  go  to  heaven  then,  if  we  are 
good,'  said  the  child.  '  This  bird  also  is  a 
bird  of  heaven  ?'  said  his  parents. 

"  The  next  morning  he  was  up  very  early, 
and  dressed  himself  quickly,  to  be  in  time  for 
the  dew  before  sunrise.  He  ran  upstairs  to 
the  little  chamber,  and  opened  the  window 
wide.  Then  he  opened  the  cage  door,  and  out 
the  white  bird  flew,  with  a  joyous  song,  far  up 
the  blue  sky  toward  the  east.  Then  the  child 
leaned  out  of  the  window,  and  fixed  his  eyes 


Willie's  rest.  67 

upon  the  bird  till  he  could  see  it  no  more  ;  still 
keeping  his  eyes  on  the  spot  in  the  blue  sky 
where  lie  saw  it  last. 

"  He  waited  very  patiently  until  the  sun 
rose,  and  then  he  sang  a  few  notes  himself, 
which  his  father  and  mother  had  taught  him 
the  night  before.  Back  came  the  bird,  singing 
as  he  flew,  with  the  light  of  the  rising  sun 
npon  liis  breast ;  and,  refreshed  with  the 
draughts  of  dew  he  had  drunk,  he  returned 
gratefully  to  his  cage.  The  child  closed  the 
door,  and  heard  the  bird  singing,  as  he  went 
downstairs  to  breakfast. 

"  The  child  did  so  for  many  days,  and  all 
went  well  with  him.  At  last  his  little  friends 
found  out  about  the  bird,  and  that  he  let  it  out 
of  the  cage  every  morning. 

"  '  How  tiresome,'  said  one  of  them,  '  to  get 
up  so  early !  My  parents  gave  me  a  bird,  too, 
and  told  me  to  feed  it ;  but  I  can't  always  get 
up  so  early,  and  so  I  give  it  some  common 
water  in  a  bottle.' 

" '  But  does  it  drink  the  common  water  ?' 
asked  the  child.' 


"  *  I  don't  think  it  likes  it/  said  the  other, 
'  I  have  never  seen  it  drink  anything.  It 
never  sings  unless  I  am  up  early  enougli  to  let 
it  fly  out  of  the  cage  and  drink  the  dew.  It 
is  a  very  dull  bird,  mine  ;  it  always  mopes. 
Sometimes  I  remember  it,  sometimes  I  forget  it, 
just  as  it  happens.' 

"  '  That  is  just  like  me  with  my  bird,'  said 
another  child  ;  '  I  don't  care  about  it,  and  I 
often  forget  to  let  it  out.  It  is  a  dull  bird, 
too,  mine.  I  think  it  unkind  of  our  parents  to 
give  us  such  a  thing  to  do.' 

"  '  Oil,'  said  the  child  who  cared  for  his  bird 
every  morning,  '  how  sad  it  makes  me  to  hear 
you  say  so.  Our  parents  unkind  to  give  us 
such  a  gentle  white  bird  each,  and  such  a  little 
trouble  to  take  for  it,  when  they  give  us  every 
pleasure  we  have  besides?  Now  I  know 
the  reason  you  are  both  cross  sometimes,  that 
you  are  idle  at  your  lessons,  and  do  not  care 
for  play,  and  that  you  have  the  evil  dreams 
you  told  me  of.  I  hope  I  sliall  never,  never 
forget  my  bird  ;  for  while  I  remember  to  let  it 
out  every  morning  for  its  draught  of  dew,  it  is 
well  with  me,  and  I  am  happy.' 


Willie's  rest.  69 

''And  never  did  the  child  forget  the  bird, 
which  loved  him  much,  and  sang  him  songs 
whenever  he  liked  to  hear  them.  Some  morn- 
ings, it  is  true,  the  child  was  tired,  and  would 
have  liked  to  sleep  longer  ;  but  he  always  said 
to  himself,  '  My  parents  give  me  everything  ; 
shall  I  not  do  this  little  thing  to  please  them  ? 
The  bird  is  thirsty,  and  if  he  drinks  the  dew 
he  will  bring  to  me  also  a  blessing.' 

"  Sometimes,  w^hile  he  was  fixing  his  eyes  on 
the  sky  to  which  the  bird  had  flown,  they  were 
dazzled  with  the  light  of  the  sunrise  so  near 
at  liand. 

" '  I  wonder,'  he  thought  one  morning,  '  where 
the  land  of  the  bird  is  ;  it  must  be  very  far 
above  the  clouds.  I  wish  I  could  see  where  he 
flies  to  ;  but  the  light  dazzles  my  eyes,  and  I 
cannot  look  beyond  it.  Oh,  that  mine  eyes 
were  strong  enough  to  see  the  light  which 
gives  light  unto  the  sun  !' 

"  And  when  the  bird  returned,  it  sang  to  the 
child  the  sweetest  song  it  had  yet  sung  ;  a  mu- 
sic which  sounded  at  once  soft  and  cheerful,  as 
much  as  to  siv, 


70  WILLIE'S   KEST. 

"'The  land  is  very  far  off;  Lut  see  how 
high  I  flew  towards  the  light :  so  shalt  thou  fly 
to  the  land  of  light  one  day.' 

"  And  the  child  remembered  that  his  parents 
had  said  the  bird  belonged  to  him,  and  to  him 
only,  and  was  glad. 

'"I  wish,'  he  often  said,  'that  ray  little 
friends  loved  their  birds  as  well.' 

"  Day  after  day  he  loved  the  bird  better  than 
ever.  Soon,  not  only  in  the  morning  he  went 
up  stairs,  but  often  in  the  hot  hours  of  the  after- 
noon, and  the  cool  hours  of  tlie  evening,  stand- 
ing before  the  cage,  and  looking  through  the 
wires  at  it,  and  listening  to  its  songs,  which 
grew  sweeter  and  softer  every  day  ;  for  never,' 
never  once,  did  the  child  forget  to  open  the 
cage  door  in  the  morning. 

''  But  the  child's  body  was  growing  weak  ; 
and  soon,  very  soon,  he  was  too  weary  to  climb 
up  stairs.  So  he  left  his  toys,  his  feasts,  and 
friends  ;  and  stayed  all  day  in  the  little  cham- 
ber at  the  top  of  the  house,  whose  window 
looked  to  the  east,  where  the  sun  rose  always. 
And  the  bird  seemed  weary  too  ;  it  drooped 


WILLIE'S   REST.  71 

its  wings,  and  sat  always  with  its  soft  eyes 
fixed  upon  the  cliild. 

'•  And  the  soft  eyes  of  the  cliild  grew  more 
and  more  like  the  soft  eyes  of  the  bird  ;  and 
more  and  more  like  the  bird's  white  breast 
grew  the  pale  face  of  the  child.  Still  the  bird 
sang,  in  softer  and  softer  tones  ;  for,  weak  as 
the  child  was,  he  never  forgot  to  open  the  door 
of  the  cage  in  the  morning,  and  to  let  the  bird 
out ;  and  weary  as  he  was,  he  never  forgot  to 
watch  for  the  bird's  return. 

"  One  morning  the  child  was  so  weary  that 
he  could  scarcely  stand,  and  his  arm  was  so 
weak  that  he  could  not  unfasten  the  door  of 
the  cage.  He  lay  upon  the  ground  and  wept, 
because  he  could  not  let  the  bird  out.  But, 
strange  and  holy  wonder  !  The  bird  sat  still 
on  its  perch,  singing  louder  and  louder. 

"  And  all  at  once,  through  the  open  window, 
open  towards  the  east,  there  blew  from  the 
east  a  mighty  wind,  a  cold  strong  wind  ;  and 
that  wind  dried  the  tears  on  the  child's  face, 
and  his  eyes  shut  softly — he  was  asleep.  And 
the  cold,  strong  wind  rent  asunder,  broke  ut- 


72  ■      Willie's  rest. 

terly,  tlie  bars  of  tlie  cage.  Then  the  bird 
flew  out.  Was  it  a  bird  now  ?  Oh  no,  it  was 
larger  and  fairer,  its  wings  grew  larger  and 
whiter,  its  white  breast  grew  brighter,  and 
seemed  a  robe  of  light. 

"  Its  countenance  changed,  and  was  like  the 
face  of  the  child  ;  only  the  child  was  asleep 
and  pale,  and  it  was  awake  and  bright,  with 
its  eyes  fixed  on  the  east,  where  the  sun  was 
going  to  rise.  It  was  the  child's  angel,  no 
longer  a  bird  in  a  cage. 

"  By-and-by  the  other  children  came  to  look 
for  the  child.  Finding  him  asleep,  so  that 
they  could  not  wake  him,  they  carried  liim 
softly  in  their  arms,  and  laid  him  to  rest  under- 
neath the  snow-drops.  But  they  saw  no  bird 
in  the  room,  and  the  bars  of  the  cage  were 
broken. 

"  For  the  angel  of  tlie  child,  wliich  in  its 
Uight  belonged  to  him  for  ever,  now  no  longer 
a  bird  in  a  cage,  had  flown  beyond  the  gates 
of  morning,  above  the  droppings  of  the  dew, 
to  the  light  which  lights  the  sun,  and  lights  all 
things." 


Willie's  rest.  73 

'^  That  is  a  prettier  story  than  the  other/' 
.<aid  Willie,  wlien  he  found  tlmt  mamma  did 
not  go  on.  '^  I  like  stories  to  end  well  :  I  don't 
like  people  to  keep  on  being  naughty  ;  and  I 
like  people  to  be  good  best  of  all." 

"But  do  you  understand  it,  Willie?  for 
without  understanding  them,  no  stories  will  do 
you  any  good." 

"  I  think  I  do,  mamma,  though  I  cannot  ex- 
actly explain.  But  I  am  sure  the  bird  was  the 
child's  soul,  because  you  told  me  our  souls 
could  get  out  of  our  bodies  in  our  thoughts,  and 
in  our  dreams  ;  though  they  cannot  leave  the 
bodies  for  ahuays,  until  we  die.  I  suppose  the 
times  it  flew  out  of  its  cage  to  drink  the  dew 
are  the  Sundays,  and  that  the  child  kept  them 
well." 

"  He  let  his  soul  keep  them,  Willie,  by  send- 
ing it  the  right  way  to  get  its  food  ;  which  is 
not  the  food  which  does  the  body  good.  When 
rour  thoughts  are  in  trouble.  Willie,  what 
'omforts  you— not  plum-cake  ?" 

'  Oh  no,  mamma,  when  you  kiss  me  and  take 
ne  on  your  lap  I  am  most  comforted." 
7 


74  Willie's  rest. 

"  Yes,  Willie,  my  love  comforts  you,  and 
God's  love  cpmforts  the  soul.  The  bird  flew 
towards  tlie  east,  because  the  sun  rose  there. 
The  soul  goes  towards  the  light  of  God  when 
it  seeks  Him  in  prayer.  God's  love  is  shown 
us  in  His  Son,  who  is  called  in  the  best  book 
"  The  Sun  of  Righteousness.'  That  is  why,  in 
the  story,  I  told  you  the  bird  flew  towards  the 
sun." 

"  Yes,  mamma,  but  it  did  not  get  to  the  sun 
until  the  child  slept,  and  its  bars  were  broken. 
Was  the  strong  wind  Death,  mamma?" 

"  Yes,  dear  Willie,  Death  ;  our  kindest 
friend,  if  we  love  God  always,  and  long  to  see 
Him.  The  strong  wind  dried  the  child's 
tears  ;  so  Death  will  remove  from  us  all  our 
sorrows." 

"  It  broke  the  bars,  too,  mamma.  But  the 
children  who  did  not  take  care  of  their  birds, 
mamma,  were  people  who  did  not  let  their 
souls  rest  on  the  day  of  rest,  were  they  not  ?" 

"  Yes,  Willie.  And  when  the  child  was  sick 
it  loved  the  bird  better.  So,  when  we  are  in 
trouble,  thoughts  of  God,  of  heaven,  and  of  the 


Willie's  best.  75 

sweetness  of  Christ's  love,  are  all  the  things 
we  care  for." 

"  I  should  like  another  story,  mamma  ;  but 
I  suppose  you  cannot  make  another  now,  for 
you  ought  to  rest  on  Sunday  too,  and  I  see  by 
your  face  that  you  are  tired." 

•'  Our  bodies  will  get  tired,  Willie  ;  that  can- 
not be  helped.  And  we  must  not  forget  that 
papa  has  been  reading  all  the  afternoon,  and 
will  want  his  tea." 

"  I  am  to  drink  tea  with  you  and  papa  too," 
said  Willie,  jumping  off  mamma's  lap^  "  And 
there  is  papa  coming  out  to  meet  us,  and  his 
shadow  is  very  long  indeed  upon  the  grass." 

•'  Yes.  it  is  evening,  and  we  have  been  talk- 
ing a  long  time." 

"  May  we  not  talk  a  long  time  every  Sunday, 
too,  mamma." 

"  A  great  many  Sundays,  I  hope,  Willie." 

Then  papa  came  up  to  them,  and  they  all 
went  in  to  tea  ;  and  Willie  much  enjoyed  his 
milk,  and  bread  and  honey,  and  listened  to 
mamma  and  papa,  while  they  talked  together  ; 
not  interrupting  them  when  he  did  not  under- 


>jQ  WILLIE'S   RKST. 

Stand  what  tliey  said,  because  mamma  had 
spared  him  the  whole  afternoon  in  talking 
about  what  he  could  understand. 

After  tea,  mamma  and  papa  went  to  church 
ao-ain  ;  but  not  Willie,  who  was  too  young  to 
he  able  to  sit  still,  and  keep  awake  so  late. 
He  watched  them  out  of  the  window  as  far  as 
he  could  see,  in  the  soft  light  which  came  after 
sunset,  and  listened  to  the  distant  ringing  of 
the  bells,  for  a  few  moments.     Then  he  re- 
membered mamma  had  said  he  was  to  go  to 
bed  whd  she  and  his  papa  were  gone  ;  and 
l-.c  went  upstairs  in   the  nursery  to  be   un- 
dressed. 

After  nurse  had  put  him  to  bed,  having 
heard  his  prayers  and  kissed  him,  he  turned 
round  on  his  pillow  just  before  he  fell  asleep, 
and  said,  "Nurse,  I  mean  to  call  Sunday 
'  Willie's  rest.' " 

"  A  very  good  name,  too.  Master  Willie, 
answered  nui^se,  "  and  that  is  keeping  the  com- 
mandment the  right  way." 

THE   END. 


WILLIE'S  BIRTHDAY. 


WILLIE'S  BIRTHDAY. 


i 


AMMA,"  said  Willie  one  morning, 
"  what  day  of  the  month  is  this  ?  " 
Willie  could  speak  now,  quite 
plainly. 

"  The  tenth  of  June,"  replied 
mamma  ;  "  but  why  do  you  ask,  Willie  ?  " 

"  Because  I  have  been  counting  on  my  fingers, 
and,  if  to-day  is  the  tenth  of  June,  I  shall  be 
five  years  old  in  one  week  ;  for  a  week  has 
seven  days,  and  I  was  born  on  the  seventeenth 
of  June,  you  said." 

"  Indeed  you  were,  Willie  ;  I  remember  that 
well." 

"  Now  you  know,  mamma,  I  have  never  kept 
my  birthday." 

(79) 


80  Willie's  bikthday. 

"  Never  kept  your  birthday,  tiny  man  ? 
Why,  you  always  had  a  large  cake  and  two 
bottles  of  sweet  wine,  to  feast  with  nurse,  and 
l)aby,  when  he  came." 

"  Ah !  but  last  year,  mamma,  don't  you 
remember  I  had  the  measles,  and  was  very 
miserable  in  bed.  You  brought  me  up  the 
cake,  to  see  it  cut  on  the  bed,  but  I  could  not 
look  at  it,  everything  hurt  my  eyes  so.  And 
I  could  not  eat  even  the  least  little  crumb  ; 
the  servants  had  it  all,  and  drank  all  the  wine. 
The  year  before  that — I  was  very  young  indeed 
then,  only  three — I  was  at  grandmamma's,  and 
you  know,  dear  mamma,  grandmamma  won't 
have  a  noise,  though  she  is  very  kind,  and  I 
was  obliged  to  sit  still  all  day.  She  gave  me 
a  glass  of  wine,  I  recollect,  after  dinner,  and 
it  made  me  so  stupid  that  I  went  to  sleep  in 
my  chair.  I  didn't  enjoy  the  day  I  was  there 
one  bit.  And  as  for  the  day  I  was  two,  I  was 
such  a  baby,  that  I  can't  remember  anything 
that  happened.  And  I  dare  say,  mamma,  you 
have  even  forgotten  the  day  I  was  one." 

"  No  indeed,  Willie,  I  remember  it  quite 
well !  " 


Willie's  birthday.  81 

"  Now  you  know,  mamma,  the  time  I  was 
three,  after  my  birthday,  we  went  to  see  the 
sea.  And  papa  told  me  a-  story  about 
Johnny's  dog,  Mop.  And  papa  promised — 
yes,  promised,  mamma — that  he  would  get  me 
a  dog  when  I  was  five.  So,  has  he  remembered 
the  dog?  because  I  am  five,  all  but  seven 
days." 

"  I  am  quite  sure  lie  has,  if  he  promised  ; 
for  he  never  breaks  liis  word.  But  you 
must  wait  and  have  patience,  and  you  will 
know." 

"  Mamma,  I  have  never  done  as  I  liked  in 
my  life.  You  say  little  boys  must  not,  because 
they  cannot  possibly  know  how  much  food,  or 
play,  or  walking  out,  is  good  for  them.  But 
it  could  not  hurt  a  boy  to  do  as  he  liked,  only 
for  one  day  in  the  year.  Herbert  Hall  never 
does  as  he  likes  generally,  for  he  goes  to  school, 
though  he  is  only  six  ;  but  always  on  his  birth- 
day he  goes  home,  and  does  as  he  pleases  all 
day.  I  wish  I  might,  mamma ! "  Here 
Willie  sighed  very  deeply,  and  looked  up  very 
seriously  in  his  mamma's  face. 


82  Willie's  birthdaf. 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  his  doing  as  he 
pleases,  Willie  ?  T  must  kuo\y  that." 

"  First  of  all,  mamma,  he  gets  up  as  early  as 
he  likes.  You  know,  very  often  these  light 
mornings  I  wake  long  before  nurse,  and  I  lie 
longing  and  longing  to  get  up  ;  only  I  dare 
not,  because  you  said  she  worked  hard  for  us 
all  day,  and  wanted  a  long  rest  at  night.  So 
Herbert  gets  up  as  soon  as  he  pleases,  and  he 
chooses  what  he  likes  for  breakfast,  and  does 
what  he  likes  afterwards  till  dinner,  and 
chooses  his  dinner,  and  chooses  the  boys  lie 
will  have  to  tea,  and  chooses  and  leads  all  the 
games  while  they  are  there,  and  of  course 
chooses  supper,  and  goes  to  bed  as  late  as  he 
pleases.  And,  mamma,  he  chooses  liis  own 
present." 

"  And  would  it  please  you,  Willie,  to  do  the 
same  ?  " 

"Yes,  mamma,  that  it  would.  You  know, 
mamma,  I  never  do  exactly  as  I  like." 

"No,  my  dear  Willie,  no  more  do  I,  no 
more  does  anybody  in  the  world.  At  least, 
when  persons — and  there  are  some  who  will 


Willie's  birthday.  83 

—do  exactly  as  they  please,  they  soon  get  sick 
of  it,  and  terribly  selfish." 

"  Of  course,  nianima ;  but  not  for  one  day, 
once  a-year.  I'm  sure  it  would  not  make  me 
selfish,  and  I'm  certain  /should  not  be  sick." 

"  Fer])ort  does  not  look  a  happier  boy  than 
you  do,  Willie." 

"No,  mamma;  but  Herbert  has  a  bad 
temper,  I  tliink." 

Perhaps  his  bad  temper  came  from  being 
tired  of  everything  before  he  went  to  schooh 
His  mamma  and  papa  are  in  India,  you  know, 
and  his  aunt  took  care  of  him  her  J;  and  she 
was  so  anxious  to  be  very  kind  to  him,  that 
perhaps  she  was  too  kind.  For  he  became  so 
tired,  and  troublesome,  and  idle,  that  she  was 
obliged  to  send  him  to  school." 

"  But,  mamma,  will  you  let  me  do  as  I  like 
this  one  birthday  ?  And  if  I  am  selfish  or 
sick,  then  you  needn't  let  me  do  as  I  like  next 
birthday.     Do  let  me,  mamma." 

"  I  must  ask  papa  about  that.  And  as  for 
the  present,  Willie,  don't  you'want  the  dog? 
you  have  talked  about  it  a  long  time." 


84  Willie's  birthday. 

"  Yes,  mamma,  I  want  the  dog,  but  you 
always  give  me  a  present  too." 

"  What  do  you  wish  to  have  besides  ?  you 
have  all  sorts  of  toys." 

"  No  toy,  mamma.  I  want  a  jacket  and 
trousers,  and  boy's  real  boots,  and  a  collar. 
I  do  not  like  to  wear  frocks,  and  frills,  and 
short  sleeves,  and  shoes  with  strap,  mamma. 
And  I  really  am  too  old." 

"  A  great  many  presents  in  one,  Willie ! 
But  about  them,  and  about  all  the  other 
(juestions,  I  must  ask  papa." 

Mamma  asked  papa  that  night,  when  he 
came  home  :  and  papa  said — -Yes.  What  a 
wonderful  thing  !  Willie  thought — "'  Yes,"  to 
;ill  the  questions.  Willie  had  been  afraid 
lie  would  say  "  No,"  particularly  about  the 
party  to  tea.  For  papa  was  very  careful  what 
little  boys  played  with  Willie.  Yet  he  said 
"  Yes"  to  all. 

The  sun  rose  very  bright  on  Willie's  birth- 
day, and  very  early  too.  At  four  o'clock 
V/illie  was  awake,  and  rose  up,  because  he  was 
to  do  exactly  as  he  liked.     Baby  was  still  fast 


Willie's  birthday.  85 

asleep  in  nurse's  bed  ;  but  nurse  rose  up  to 
dress  Willie.  She  looked  very  sleepy,  and 
rubbed  her  eyes. 

"  Your  mamma  told  me,  Master  Willie,  that 
you  were  to  do  as  you  liked   to-day.     Now  I 
will  give  you  one  piece  of  advice,  and  if  you 
don't  follow  it,  I  shall  give  you  no  more  advice 
to-day.     You  will  not  get  any  breakfast  for  a 
long  time,  because  the  other  servants  will  not 
be  up  ;  they  have  other  business  besides  wait- 
ing on  you.      If  you  were  a  wise  boy,  vou 
would  lie  down  again ;  and  if  I  drew  the  cur- 
tains quite  close  round  your  crib,  you  would 
not  see   the  light  so   much,   and   might  fall 
asleep  ;  for  I  think  it  very  likely  you  will  be 
too  tired  to  play  in  a  few  hours,  getting  up  so 
soon." 

But  Willie  was  not  a  wise  boy,  and  would 
not  try  to  go  to  sleep  again.  He  felt  quite 
strong  then,  because  he  had  just  woke  up; 
and  he  was  very  anxious  to  see  his  new  clothes. 
Xurse  took  them  out  of  a  box  in  the  nursery, 
and  brought  them  into  the  bed-room.  They 
were  fine  and  neat  indeed— splendid,  Willie 
8 


bb  WILLIE  S   BIRTHDAY. 

thought.  Nurse  put  on  him  a  white  waistcoat, 
and  a  blue  jacket,  and  nankeen  trousers  ;  she 
pulled  up  his  collar,and  pulled  down  his  wrist- 
bands, and  buttoned  his  leather  boots,  and 
gave  him  a  beaver  hat.  Nurse  smiled  when 
she  had  dressed  him  ;  but  she  did  not  look 
pleased,  Willie  thought.  She  was  smiling  at 
the  vain  face  Willie  looked  at  himself  with 
in  the  glass.  Now  Willie  did  not  feel  com- 
fortable at  all,  but  stiff,  and  hard,  and  fastened 
up  too  tight. 

"  Pride  feels  no  pain,"  said  nurse,  as  Willie 
went  out  at  the  door. 

Then,  at  the  bottom  of  the  stairs,  Willie 
call  to  her  again  to  come  and  unbar  the  garden 
door  for  him.  Down  nurse  went,  and  when  she 
liad  seen  Willie  run  across  the  lawn,  she  went 
upstairs  again  into  the  bed-room,  and  fell 
asleep  once  more  by  baby's  side,  till  six  o'clock. 

Willie  ran  across  the  lawn  while  nurse  was 
looking  ;  but  when  she  had  gone  away,  he  left 
off  running,  and  was  glad  to  walk  instead,  for 
the  strong  tight  boots  hurt  his  feet  as  he  ran  ; 
not  because  they  were  too  small,  but  because 


87 


lie  had  never  worn  anything  but  soit  shoes,  or, 
in  the  damp,  nice  little  overalls,  almost  as  soft 
thelnselves.  Tight  did  his  jacket  feel,  particu- 
larly about  the  arms,  and  tighter  his  waist- 
coat ;  and  the  stiff  edge  of  his  collar  scraped 
his  neck  ;  and,  above  all,  how  hot  did  the  new 
hat  make  his  head  that  hot  June  morning,  and 
how  warm  were  the  long  cloth  sleeves.  But, 
as  nurse  said,  "  Pride  feelc  no  pain,"  and  Willie 
would  not  have  confessed  to  anybody  how  un- 
comfortably he  felt  the  first  thing  on  his  birth- 
day. If  he  had  been  comfortable  in  his  clothes 
he  could  have  enjoyed  himself  very  happily  in 
the  garden  :  for  he  had  a  garden  of  his  own. 
But  after  he  had  carried  one  watering-pot  full 
of  water  from  the  pump  to  his  own  flower  bed, 
and  watered  the  seeds  just  springing,  he  was 
too  tired  to  rake  or  dig,  even  if  he  had  not 
been  afraid  to  dirty  his  new  dress. 

It  was  not  only  the  stiff  new  dress  that  tired 
liim  ;  it  was  being  up  so  very,  very  early  :  be- 
sides, he  was  always  used  to  have  his  breakfast 
directly  he  was  dressed  and  had  said  his  pray- 
ers ;  and  now,  as  nurse  had  said,  he  could  not 


88  Willie's  birthday. 

get  any  till  seven  o'clock — more  than  two 
hours  to  come.  There  was  plenty  of  fruit,  but 
it  was  not  ripe  ;  the  gooseberries  had  all  been 
gathered  for  pies,  and  there  were  currants  and 
raspberries  and  strawberries,  all  green  just 
tinged  with  red.  On  other  days  Willie  knew 
he  was  not  to  gather  fruit  for  himself,  but  as 
he  was  to  do  as  he  pleased  this  day,  he  pluck- 
ed a  bunch  of  currants  and  tasted  them.  Oh, 
how  sour !  and  what  an  ugly  twisted  face 
Willie  made  over  them  :  so  he  threw  the  rest 
away,  and  walked  down  to  the  bottom  of  the 
garden. 

There  was  a  large  field  beyond  the  kitchen- 
garden,  which  belonged  to  Willie's  papa.  TJie 
hay  had  been  cut,  and  that  morning  was  to  be 
turned  about  in  the  sun  ;  but  the  men  had  not 
come  yet,  for  it  was  at  five  o'clock  they  came  ; 
so  Willie  walked  across  the  field,  getting  more 
and  more  hungry  every  moment.  At  the  bot- 
tom of  that  field  was  another,  which  did  not 
belong  to  his  papa.  But  his  papa  knew  the 
gentleman  to  whom  it  belonged,  and  Willie 
had  often  played  there.     There  were  cows  in 


Willie's  birthuay.  89 

it,  and  a  little  cottage  where  the  cow-keeper 
and  his  wife  lived.  While  Willie  was  looking, 
the  cow-keeper's  wife  came  out  to  milk  the 
cows,  with  two  pails,  one  in  each  hand.  Wil- 
lie got  over  the  stile  and  ran  up  to  her. 

"  What  droll  little  figure  of  a  manikin  is 
that  ?"  she  cried.  "  Husband,  come  out  and 
look  at  this  funny  little  doll?  Why  it  must 
be  Tom  Thumb* himself,  and  I  must  look  out 
and  take  care  the  cows  don't  snap  him  up  with 
the  buttercups." 

Oh  !  how  vexed  did  little  Willie  feel,  when 
the  cow-keeper  came  out,  and  he  and  his  wife 
both  stood  and  laughed  at  Willie ;  for  they 
knew  Willie  in  his  frocks — he  had  often  been 
to  see  them  with  nurse — but  they  did  not  know 
him  in  his  grown  boy's  dress.  He  turned  his 
back,  and  was  going  away,  when  the  wind 
blew  off  his  hat.  Then  the  cow-keeper's  wife 
knew  him  by  his  yellow  hair. 

"  Come  back!  come  back!"  she  cried.  "It's 
Master  Willie  ;  what  does  he  out  by  himself 
so  early,  dressed  up  like  a  monkey  on  a  barrel- 
organ  ?" 

8* 


90  Willie's  birthday. 

"  I'm  not  like  a  monkey,"  said  Willie,  very- 
loud  ;  "  monkeys  always  wear  cocked  hats." 

"  Never  mind  !"  said  the  cow-keeper's  wife, 
"  don't  vex  your  little  heart,  but  sit  down  and 
tell  me  all  about  it." 

"  It's  my  birthday,"  said  Willie,  "  and  I  am 
to  do  just  as  I  like.  But  I  cannot  do  as  I  like, 
for  I  should  like  to  have  my  breakfast,  and  the 
servants  are  not  up.  I  am  to  have  cliocolate  and 
ham  for  breakfast,  by-and-by,  and  three  eggs." 

"  Well,  monkey  or  no  monkey,  it's  very  hard 
to  be  hungry  and  not  able  to  eat,"  said  the 
cow-keeper's  wife.  '*  If  you  like  to  have  a 
basin  of  milk,  you  shall  directly  I  have  milked 
it ;  and  a  bit  of  brown  bread,  too,  just  warm 
from  the  oven." 

Very  nice,  indeed,  her  words  sounded  to 
Willie  ;  so  he  carried  one  of  the  stools  out  of 
the  cottage,  and  sat  upon  it  while  the  cow  was 
milked.  Then  he  had  what  the  cow-keeper's 
wife  called  his  first  breakfast,  warm  bread  and 
warm  milk  ;  and  when  he  had  finished,  he  felt 
as  if  he  should  never  want  breakfast  again. 

By  that  time  the  haymakers  had  come  into 


91 


his  papla's  field  It  was  the  first  time  they  had 
turned  the  cut  grass,  which  smelt  sweeter  than 
flowers  almost,  in  the  morning  sun.  Willie 
wanted  to  make  hay  directly,  and  ran  into  the 
field.  One  of  the  men  was  so  good  as  to  lend 
Willie  his  fork,  and  Willie  tried  to  use  it,  but 
it  was  so  long  and  heavy  he  was  obliged  to 
throw  it  down;  besides,  working  in  his  jacket 
was  very  warm  work  indeed. 

Then  he  went  back  into  the  garden,  and 
there,  between  two  trees,  was  a  very  delightful 
■swing,  with  four  ropes  and  a  green  seat.  Papa 
always  gave  his  little  sons  a  swing  when  he 
came  home,  those  summer  evenings  ;  but  papa 
would  not  let  them  swing  themselves^  lest  they 
might  hurt  themselves  in  their  play.  But  on 
Willie's  birthday,  was  he  not  to  do  as  he  liked  ? 
■And  Willie  called  to  the  gardener,  who  was 
just  beginning  to  dig, 

'  "  Come  and  swing  me,  Webb,  for  I  am  to  do 
as  I  like  to-day,  and  papa  is  not  down  yet." 

"  Anything  you  like,  Master  Willie,  and 
."welcome  ;  but  /am  not  to  do  as  you  like,  so 
please  to  let  me  go  on  with  my  work." 


92  Willie's  birthday. 

"Then,"  thought  Willie,  ''I'll  swing  my- 
self." So  Willie,  by  trying  very  hard,  managed 
to  climb  into  the  swing  ;  but  try  as  hard  as 
ever  he  could,  he  could  only  make  the  swing 
move  a  little — very  little — backwards  and  for- 
wards. He  was  just  going  to  climb  down 
again,  when  papa,  who  had  just  left  his  dress- 
ing-room, came  out  into  the  garden. 

"  Papa,  papa  !"  cried  Willie,  "  please  to  come 
and  swing  me  as  long  as  ever  I  like." 

Papa  was  so  kind  as  to  come  directly,  and 
he  swung  Willie  one  hundred  times  backwards 
and  forwards.  Still  Willie  wished  to  swing 
more.  Papa  swung  Willie  three  hundred  and 
four  hundred  times.  I  should  think  papa  was 
tired.  But  Willie  said,  "  Five  hundred  times, 
papa !"  And  papa  went  on  swinging  higher 
and  higher  ;  and  just  when  he  was  very  near 
five  hundred,  Willie  left  off  counting,  and 
turned  very  pale,  and  screamed,  "  Papa,  papa  I 
I'm  ill,  I'm  very  ill,  and  I  do  believe  I  am 
going  to  be  sick  !" 

And  before  papa  could  stop  the  swing — 
shocking  and  unpolite  to  say — Willie  was  sick  ; 


Willie's  birthday.  93 

for  going  backwards  and  forwards,  up  and 
down,  will  make  anybody  ^sick  after  having 
had  a  great  deal  of  rich  new  milk,  early  in  the 
morning.  How  ashamed,  as  well  as  ill,  did 
Willie  feel  when  papa  lifted  him  out  of  the 
swing  and  carried  him  home.  •  Sick  still,  for 
he  felt  as  if  he  were  still  swinging  ;  and 
ashamed  more,  because  he  had  made  himself 
sick  by  doing  as  he  liked  after  his  first  break- 
fast. For  I  can  tell  you  that,  instead  of  seem- 
ing nice,  the  smell  of  the  warm  ham,  just 
brought  up  to  table,  made  him  still  more  sick  ; 
and  as  to  the  three  eggs  which  had  been  boiled, 
he  felt  just  as  if  he  should  never  w^sh  for  one 
egg  again.  Mamma  put  him  on  the  sofa  in  the 
drawing-room,  while  she  and  papa  were  at 
breakfast,  and  soon  he  felt  better.  And  when 
breakfast  was  over,  all  Willie's  kind  friends 
brought  him  his  birthday  presents. 

He  had  on  his  mamma's  present,  for  that, 
you  remember  was  his  new  suit  of  clothes,  of 
which  he  was  already  tired.  But  there  was 
dear  baby's  present ;  for  baby  was  two  years 
old  now,  and  he  held  out  a  soft  ball  to  Willie 


94  Willie's  birthday. 

in  his  pretty  hand.  And  nurse  gave  Willie  a 
nice  little  rake,  just  what  Willie  had  wanted 
to  turn  the  hay  with. 

Then  papa  brought  Willie  a  funny  basket, 
and  told  him  to  open  it :  and  a  noble  dog 
jumped  out,  a  dog  with  curly  coat  and  kind 
brown  eyes,  and  long  silky  ears.  This  good 
dog  licked  Willie's  hand  directly,  and  wagged 
his  tail ;  and  Willie  was  pleased  and  said, 
"  It's  a  prettier  dog  than  Mop,  Johnny's  Mop 
in  the  story."  But  then,  oh  then,  mamma 
pulled  a  cloth  off  something  very  large,  which 
the  housemaid  and  nurse  had  carried  in  to- 
gether. And  that  was  a  fine  rocking-horse,  a 
present  from  grandmamma.  When  Willie  saw 
the  rocking-horse,  he  forgot  all  about  the  poor 
good  dog,  who  stood  wagging  his  tail  so  kindly, 
and  said,  "  Nurse,  nurse  !  lift  me  on  the  horse, 
and  I  will  ride  as  long  as  ever  I  like."  Nurse 
lifted  Willie  on  the  horse  ;  but  directly  the 
horse  began  to  rock  gently  backwards  and  for- 
wards, Willie  remembered  that  the  swing  also 
moved  backwards  and  forwards.  That  fright- 
ened  him,  for  he  thought  he  might  be  sick 


WILLIE'S   BIRTHDAY.  95 

again  ;  so  he  said,  "  Nurse,  lift  me  off,  please, 
and  let  baby  have  a  ride."  Nurse  nodded  her 
head  and  looked  very  wise,  as  if  she  thought, 
"That  is  not  all  kindness  for  the  baby  ;  it  is 
Master  Willie's  kindness  for  himself  too." 
But  she  did  not  say  so  ;  she  lifted  Willie  off 
and  held  baby  on. 

"  Oh,  mamma !"  said  Willie,  and  he  sighed 
very  deeply,  "don't  you  think  it  is  a  great 
pity  we  can  only  do  one  thing  we  like  at  a 
time,  and  only  for  a  little  time,  too  ?" 

"  How  many  things  do  you  want  to  do  at 
once,  Willie  ?" 

"  To  ride,  mamma,  and  to  play  at  ball  with 
baby,  and  sit  on  your. lap  and  hear  stories,  and 
to  look  at  all  the  big  pictures  of  animals  of 
which  papa  only  shows  us  one  at  a  time,  and 
to  go  and  ride  on  papa's  horse  with  him  all  the 
way  to  London.  And  I  want  to  go  into  the 
kitchen  and  see  cook  make  the  pie,  and  the 
custards,  and  the  gooseberry  cream.  And  I 
want  to  make  hay  with  my  new  rake,  for  it  is 
so  light  it  will  never  make  me  tired.  So  whicn 
shalJ  I  do  mamma?" 


96  Willie's  birthday. 

.  "  All !  Willie,  I  cannot  tell  you  ;  you  must 
tell  yourself  to-day." 

"  Then,  mamma,  I'll  do  a  little  bit  of  all." 
But,  remembering  what  happened  to  him 
about  "  backwards  and  forwards,"  Willie  did 
not  have,  then,  any  more  riding  on  the  rocking- 
horse.  Had  he  forgotten  all  about  the  poor 
good  dog,  that  he  did  not  want  to  play  with 
him  ?  Not  exactly  ;  but  I  must  confess  he 
thought  much  less  of  the  dog  with  his  curly 
coat  and  kind  eyes,  than  of  the  rocking-horse 
with  its  bright  green  rockers  and  make-believe 
flowing  tail.  And,  as  nurse  said,  for  she  was 
very  fond  of  short  sayings,  ' '  Out  of  sight,  out 
of  mind  ;"  for  the  dog  had  gone  into  the  stable 
to  have  his  breakfast,  and  see  his  new  house, 
the  kennel,  and  Willie  thought  it  too  much 
trouble  to  go  after  him.  "  For,"  thought  Wil- 
lie, "  I  shall  want  the  dog  much  more  on  the 
days  when  I  shall  not  be  allowed  to  do  as  I 
like." 

So  Willie  played  at  ball  with  baby  first ;  but 
not  long,  for  soon  papa's  horse  was  brought  to 
the  door  of  the  house,  and  Willie  threw  down 


Willie's  jjirtiiday.  97 

the  ball  and  ran  into  tlie  breakfast-room,  cry- 
ing, "  Papa,  I  want  to  ride  on  your  horse  a 
little  way  to  London."  Papa  was  so  kind  as 
to  lift  Willie  on  alone,  and  hold  him  there, 
while  he  walked  himself.  Only  to  the  garden- 
gate  though,  "For,"  said  papa,  "  how  would 
you  get  back  alone,  Willie,  if  I  took  you  any 
farther?  for  you  do  not  go  along  this  road 
with  nurse,  because  there  are  houses,  and  it  is 
better  for  you  to  be  in  the  fields."  So  Willie 
was  put  down  again,  and  papa  kissed  his  hand, 
and  galloped  off  to  London.  Then  Willie 
went  to  mamma,  who  was  in  the  dining-room. 

•'  Mamma,  I  want  to  sit  on  your  lap  now, 
and  he.ar  stories." 

"  I  will  tell  you  a  short  story,  Willie,  but  I 
cannot  spare  the  time  for  many,  I  have  so 
many  things  to  do." 

Mamma  told  him  a  little  story,  but  just  as 
she  got  to  an  interesting  place  the  cook  came 
in  and  interrupted  mamma  to  ask  her  what 
meat  she  wanted  for  dinner,  because  the 
butcher  had  come. 

Now  Willie  had  no  patience  to  wait  till 
9 


98  Willie's  birthday. 

mamma  had  settled,  so  he  ran  into  papa's 
room,  full  of  books,  where  the  big  pictures 
were  kept.  Willie  had  never  touched  them 
on  tlie  shelf  before,  where  thc}^  were  kept  in  a 
portfolio  ;  but  now  he  pulled  down  the  port- 
folio, and  strewed  all  the  pictures  on  the  jfloor. 
They  were  so  large  that  they  quite  covered 
the  carpet.  Willie  looked  for  the  big  lion  he 
liked  so  much,  and  then  for  the  bigger  buifalo, 
and  then  the  biggest  of  all,  the  elephant. 
Then — can  you  believe  it  ? — he  was  tired  ! 
The  lion  didn't  roar,  and  the  buffalo  didn't 
bellow,  and  the  elephant  did  not  take  up  the 
little  baby  in  the  picture  on  the  grass,  w^ith 
his  tinmk.  And  yet,  when  papa  showed  the 
pictures,  they  seemed  to  do  all  these  things 
really,  because  papa  described  them  in  such 
delightful  stories. 

Then  Willie  heard  cook  beating  up  the  eggs 
for  the  custards,  and  he  ran  down  stairs  into 
the  kitchen.  Cooks  do  not  like  to  be  observed 
while  they  are  making  nice  things,  and  now 
cook  was  making  a  great  many  nice  things  for« 
dinner,  and  for  Willie's  birthday  supper.     She 


Willie's  birthday.  99 

was  very  red  indeed,  for  there  was  a  big  fire 
and  she  was  very  busy.  Willie  was  frightened 
to  stop  there,  for  when  he  came  to  the  table 
and  said,  "  May  I  see  you  make  custards  ?  and 
may  I  taste  tlie  eggs  before  you  put  them  in — 
all  that  nice  yellow  froth  ?"  cook  did  not 
answer,  but  frowned,  and  beat  the  eggs  harder, 
so  that  the  yellow  froth  splashed  a  few  spots 
over  Willie's  blue  jacket. 

Then  Willie  ran  into  the  pantry,  for  he 
knew  cook  was  too  busy  to  follow  him.  On 
one  table  there  were  tarts  upon  a  dish,  little 
tarts  with  crossbars  over  them,  and  Willie  ate 
one  very  fast.  In  another  dish  there  were 
jellies,  and  Willie  took  one  large  spoonful. 
In  another  dish  there  were  large  strawberries, 
but  only  a  few,  because  very  few  were  ripe 
yet.  And  Willie  ate  six  of  the  largest.  On 
a  very  big  dish  was  the  birthday  cake  covered 
with  sugar,  and  in  the  middle  of  the  cake 
were  three  beautiful  flags,  all  waving  together 
— the  English  flag,  the  French  flag,  and  the 
Sardinian  flag.  What  did  Willie  do?  He 
tried  first  to  pick  a  piece  of  sugar  off  the  cake, 


100 


but  it  was  too  hard  and  smooth  ;  so  he  touched 
the  flags  in  the  middle,  and  as  the  cake  was  on 
-Ji.  shelf  rather  taller  than  Willie,  he  had  to 
stretch  his  arm  very  much  to  get  at  it.  Now 
the  flagstaff's  were  made  of  thin  wood,  and  as 
he  pulled  the  English  flag,  which  was  furthest 
from  him,  the  staff  broke,  and  the  flag  fell  flat 
on  the  cake. 

"  Oh,  dear  !  what  shall  I  do  ?"  thought 
Willie  ;  and  he  began  to  cry,  though  he  soon 
left  off,  for  fear  cook  should  hear  him.  "  It  is 
my  own  cake,  after  all,"  he  thought,  "  only  it 
spoils  the  middle  so  much  to  be  without  this 
flag — the  English  flag,  too.  Ah!  but  then," 
Willie  went  on  thinking,  "  I  wanted  to  have 
the  English  flag  myself  a^  supper,  and  perhaps 
mamma  would  have  given  it  to  somebody  else. 
So  I  shall  put  it  into  my  pocket,  and  not  tell 
mamma  till  to-morrow,  for  then  all  the  boys 
will  be  gone  and  she  will  let  me  keep  it."  So 
he  stuffed  tlie  flag  into  his  pocket,  and  looked 
all  round  the  pantry  again. 

There  was  a  great  basket  of  gooseberries 
for  tl\e  goosebeiry  cream ;  and  Willie  tasted 


i 


WILLIES   BIRTHDAY.  101 

one,  of  course,  but  only  one,  because  they  were 
sour  without  sugar.  But  there  was  a  quantity 
of  sugar  ready  pounded  to  mix  with  them,  anr». 
I  am  afraid  to  say  how  much  Willie  ate  of 
that,  lielping  himself  with  his  fingers. 

But  where  was  the  cream  ?  In  a  big  bowl 
on  the  highest  shelf  of  all,  higher  than  the 
cake  ;  and,  unfortunately,  there  was  a  stool 
in  the  pantry,  which  cook  used  to  stand  on 
that  she  might  reach  the  preserves  on  the 
highest  shelf.  Up  on  that  stool  stood  Willie  ; 
but  even  then  he  could  only  touch  the  side  of 
the  bowl. 

Alas  !  there  was  a  little  cream  on  the  edge 
of  the  bowl  which  made  it  slippery,  and  as 
Willie  stood  on  tiptoe  to  dip  his  finger  in  the 
cream  (a  very  shocking  trick  that),  down 
came  the  bowl  with  a  great  crash,  and  was 
broken  all  to  pieces  ;  and,  worse  than  that,  all 
the  cream  was  spilled,  and  lay  in  a  great  white 
puddle  upon  the  floor. 

Willie  was  afraid  that  cook  would  hear  the 
great  crash,  and  run  into  the  pantry ;  so  he 
ran  out  as  fast  as  ever  he  could  in  his  stiff 
9^ 


102 


new  boots,  and  upstairs  into  the  garden.  As 
Willie  ran  up,  the  cat  ran  down,  and  it  was 
more  than  you  could  expect  of  a  cat  that  she 
would  not  eat  cream  spilled  ready  for  her. 

Now^  cook  had  not  heard  the  great  crash, 
for  she  was  beating  the  pastry  witli  the  rolling- 
pin,  which  made  a  great  noise  too  ;  so  puss 
had  time  to  eat  all  the  cream  and  run  away, 
before  cook  came  to  fetch  the  cream,  and  found 
it  no  more  there,  only  the  bits  of  the  broken 
bowl.     Cook  was  very  angry. 

'^ Thief,  thief !  unpardonable  cat !"  she  cried. 
"  To  choose  the  cream  on  the  top  shelf,  when 
there  are  so  many  pans  of  milk  on  the  lowest 
shelf.  You  that  I  brought  up  from  a  kitten, 
— ^you  that  I  thought  to  be  an  honest  cat,  who 
would  take  nothing  without  leave !  A  fine 
whipping  you  shall  have  when  I  see  you  next." 

When  Willie  ran  out  into  the  garden,  he 
smelt  the  hay  again,  sweeter  than  ever. 

"  My  new  rake,  my  new  rake,  nurse !"  he 

cried  to  nurse,  who  was  up   at   tlie   nursery 

*  window,  "  Bring  me  my  new  rake,  for  I  smell 

the  hay,  and  I  shall  have  such  fun  in  the  field." 


103 

Nurse  brought  the  rake  directly,  and  Willie 
ran  down  the  garden  into  the  field.  All  the 
men  were  at  work  there,  very  busy,  and  Willie 
was  very  busy  too.  Soon  nurse  brought  baby 
into  the  hay-field,  too,  and  sat  down  with  him. 
Still  Willie  did  not  leave  off  turning  the  hay, 
for  he  wanted  to  see  whether  he  could  not 
work  as  hard  as  one  of  the  big  men.  But  he 
was  tired  very  soon.  "  What  can  it  be  ?"  said 
he  to  himself,  "  for  they  are  not  tired  at  all !" 
Then  he  saw  that  the  big  men  did  not  wear 
any  coats,  but  worked  in  their  shirt-sleeves  :  so 
Willie  pulled  off  his  warm  jacket,  and  threw 
it  under  the  hedge,  and  went  on  working. 
Still  he  became  more  tired,  but  as  nurse  was 
there,  he  did  not  like  her  to  think  he  was  not 
strong,  and  he  raked  faster  and  faster. 

Pretty  soon  he  became  very  dizzy,  partly 
from  working  so  hard  in  the  heat,  and  partly 
from  eating  so  many  rich  things  in  the  cook's 
pantry. 

"  Nurse,  nurse !  the  trees  are  going  round. 
I  can  feel  the  world  turning  round,  as  papa 
says  it  does,  nurse.'' 


104 


Nurse  was  very  kind  to  the  silly  tiny  man  ; 
she  carried  him  under  the  shadow  of  the 
hedge,  and  there  left  him,  asleep,  in  a  few 
minutes,  while  she  went  to  look  after  his 
jacket.  But  there  was  no  jacket  anywhere 
under  the  hedge,  for  while  nurse  was  working 
with  her  needle,  and  Willie  was  working  with 
his  rake,  a  gipsy  woman  had  peeped  over  the 
hedge,  and,  seeing  a  new  blue  jacket  that 
seemed  to  belong  to  nobody,  had  carried  it 
away. 

When  Willie  woke  up,  he  thouglit  it  was 
the  morning,  and  that  he  was  in  his  own  little 
bed  ;  but  never,  in  his  own  little  bed,  had  he 
woke  up  so  uncomfortable.  His  head  was  so 
heavy  he  could  hardly  lift  it  up,  and  his 
temples  ached,  and  his  eyes  were  sore,  and  his 
arms  and  legs  were  very  stiff  indeed.  And  he 
did  not  feel  the  least  hungry,  but  he  felt  very 
thirsty,  and  his  tongue  was  dry  and  hot. 

"  It  is  time  for  dinner,  Master  Willie,"  said 
nurse,  coming  up  to  him,  "  and  baby  has  a  very 
good  appetite  indeed." 

"  I  have  not  any  appetite  at  all,  nurse,"  said 


Willie's  birthday.  105 

Willie,  "  and  I  am  very  sorry  it  is  dinner-time, 
for  half  my  birthday  is  gone,  and  I  have  not 
enjoyed  doing  anything  yet,  much." 

Nurse  had  covered  Willie  with  her  shawl. 

"  Where  is  my  jacket  ?"  he  asked. 

"  Ah !  Master  Willie,  I  have  looked  for  it 
high  and  low,  ever  since  you  fell  asleep. 
Somebody  has  found  it  and  carried  it  away." 

Willie  felt  very  cross  and  sorry,  for  he  had 
borne  his  new  clothes,  though  he  was  not  com- 
fortable in  them,  because  he  wanted  the  boys 
who  were  coming  to  tea  to  see  him  dressed  so. 

"  It  was  your  fault,  nurse,  and  you  are  very 
unkind.  If  you  had  taken  care  of  my  jacket  it 
would  not  have  been  stolen." 

"  Master  Willie,"  said  nurse,  "  your  mamma 
told  me  I  was  not  to  do  anything  for  you  to- 
day but  what  you  liked,  and  you  did  not  bring 
me  your  jacket,  nor  did  I  see  where  you  put 
it." 

So  Willie  was  obliged  to  sit  down  to  table 
in  his  waistcoat  and  shirt-sleeves  on  his  birth- 
day. That  Avas  not  the  worst  thing  either. 
Willie  had  ordered  his  own  dinner  that  day, 


106  WILLIE'S   BIRTHDAY. 

and  there  was  salmon  and  slirimp  sauce,  and 
roast  chicken  and  bacon,  and  young  peas  and 
mashed  potatoes,  and  currant  and  raspberry 
tart,  and  gooseberry  pie,  and  custard  pudding. 
But  of  all  those  nice  things  Willie  could 
only  eat  a  little  bit  of  chicken  and  a  small 
piece  of  custard  pudding  ;  and  he  did  not  enjoy 
even  these  things,  for  the  brown  drink  had,  as 
he  said,  taken  away  his  appetite  for  dinner  ; 
just  as  the  new  milk  had  taken  away  his  appe- 
tite for  breakfast. 

Willie's  friends  were  to  come  soon  after 
dinner,  and  he  said  to  nurse, 

"  Will  they  laugh  at  me  if  I  don't  wear  a 
jacket,  for   all    my   other    clothes    are    like 

theirs?" 

"I  don't  know,  Master  Willie  ;  but  I  know 
that  gentlemen  do  not  generally  receive  com- 
pany in  shirt-sleeves." 

"  Shall  I,  or  shall  I  not,  nurse  ?" 

-  As  you  like,  Master  Willie  ;  I  can  give  you 
no  advice,  to-day." 

Then  Willie  went  to  his  mamma. 

"  Mamma,  shall  I  receive  my  company  in  my 


107 


shirt-sleeves,  or  shall  I  wear  my  best  velvet 
frock  r 

"  As  yon  like,  Willie,"  said  mamma. 

"  AVon't  you  give  me  any  advice,  either, 
mamma?" 

"  No,  Willie,  you  wished  to  do  as  you  liked 
to-day." 

"  Dear !"  thought  Willie,  "  I  wish  some  one 
would  advise  me.  I  wish  I  knew  how  to 
advise  myself!"  Then  he  went  into  the  garden 
to  see  the  tent  wliich  the  men  were  putting  up 
on  the  lawn  ;  for  Willie  wished  to  have  tea  in 
the  garden  with  his  friends.  The  tent  was 
nearly  ready,  only  the  tables  were  not  yet 
placed  ;  and  while  the  men  fastened  a  flag  to 
the  top  of  the  tent  the  housemaids  carried  out 
the  tables,  and  the  cook  helped  them,  because 
they  were  heavy. 

Willie  was  watching  them,  when  the  cat  ran 
across  the  lawn.  The  cook  saw  her,  and  ran 
after  her,  and  began  to  switch  her  with  a  little 
stick  which  Willie  had  left  on  the  lawn. 
Willie  ran  too. 

"  Don't  hurt  pus^y,  cook  !"  he  cried. 


108  Willie's  birthday. 

"  I  must  give  her  a  smart  touch,  Master 
"Willie,  to  teach  her  she  mayn't  steal  my 
cream." 

"  Oh,  cook  !  no,  no !  /  am  the  cat.     I  don't 

mean  I  m  the  cafc,  though but  I  did  it,  not 

the  cat." 

"You  lapped  up  all  that  cream,  Master 
Willie  ?  No,  no,  little  gentlemen  do  queer 
things  sometimes,  but  you  won't  find  them  lap 
up  cream  like  a  cat  ;  it  would  not  be  conven- 
ient, unless  you  turned  into  a  cat  on  purpose, 
Mastei^  Willie." 

"  No,  no  ;  I  mean  " — and  now  Willie  cover- 
ed his  face  with  his  hand  :  he  was  ashamed  to 
look  at  her  face — "  I  mean,  I  pulled  down 
the  bowl,  and  then  it  broke,  and  then  I  could 
not  mend  it,  nor  pick  up  the  cream." 

"  What,  stealing.  Master  Willie  ?" 

"  No,  no,  not  stealing,  cook  ;  only  doing  as 
I  liked  to-day." 

"  Don't  you  know.  Master  Willie,  that  when 
a  thief  steals,  it  is  always  because  he  does  as 
he  likes?" 

Willie  was  angry,  and  he  walked  back  td^ 


Willie's  birthday.  109 

the  tent.  There  was  tlic  poor  new  dog  wag- 
ging his  tail.  But  doggie  liad  been  in  the 
water  at  the  bottom  of  the  garden  ;  for  he  was 
a  dog  that  loved  tlie  water,  and  the  gardener 
had  thrown  liim  a  stone.  And  when  Willie 
saw  how  wet  the  dog  was,  he  was  afraid  his 
new  dress  would  be  soiled,  all  that  he  had  left 
of  it ;  so  he  went  away  into  the  house,  aad 
left  the  poor  dog  on  the  lawn  wagging  his  tail, 
and  looking  as  if  he  would  like  very  much  not 
to  be  left  behind. 

Tlie  first  of  Willie's  friends  who  arrived, 
was  a  young  gentleman  about  twelve,  and  the 
oldest  of  Willie's  young  acquaintance.  This 
young  gentleman  thought  himself  a  grown 
man  as  much  'as  Willie  thought  himself  a  boy  ; 
and,  directly  he  saw  Willie,  he  burst  into  a 
laugh  so  loud,  so  rude,  that  Willie  was  quite 
frightened,  and  began  to  cry.  Then  the  young 
gentleman  lifted  Willie  up  in  his  arras  and 
dandled  him  like  a  baby,  and  laughed  louder 
tfian  ever.  Willie  struggled  very  much  to  get 
down,  and  quite  left  off  crying  ;  but  his  face 
was  redder  than  a  soldier's  coat,  for  he  knew 
10 


110  Willie's  birthday. 

the  hi^ger  young  gentleman  was  laugliing  at 
him  for  crying  in  his  new  boy's  dress. 

"  May  I  inquire  who  is  your  tailor?"  asked 
he,  putting  Willie  down. 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Willie  ;  "  but  it  is  very 
unkind  to  laugh  at  me,  for  a  gipsy  woman  stole 
my  jacket." 

"The  best  thing  she  ever  did,"  said  the 
young  gentleman,  who  was  not  very  unkind, 
only  very  thoughtless.  And  if  you  will  take 
my  advice,  Willie,  you  will  get  off  those  clothes 
before  the  other  boys  come  ;  for  they  will  all 
laugh,  for  certain." 

Willie  was  glad  to  take  his  advice,  even 
though  he  gave  it  rudely.  But,  as  he  was 
running  across  the  hall,  several  other  boysf. 
came  in,  and  they  all  laughed  very  loud  in- 
deed when  they  saw  him  such  a  droll  little 
figure.  He  ran  upstairs  as  fast  as  ever  he 
could,  and  pulled  off  all  his  new  clothes,  and 
asked  nurse  to  dress  him  in  his  best  velvei 
frock,  and  shoes,  and  socks,  and  white  trousers 
Even  then  his  troubles  were  not  ended  ;  foj 
when  he  went  down  again  to  his  friends,  the] 


Willie's  birthday.  Ill 

pretended,  for  fun,  not  to  know  him,  until  he 
showed  them  his  rocking-horse,  which  took  up 
their  attention  directly. 

Willie  was  now  to  see  the  consequences  of 
many  pei'sons  doing  as  they  liked.  For  he 
had  asked  his  mamma  not  to  come  into  the 
play-room  at  all  after  his  friends  came.  Seeing 
no  lady,  no  nurse,  and  no  great  papa— no  little 
girls  either,  for  Willie  only  liked  to  invite 
boys— the  young  gentlemen  all  began  to  do  as 
they  liked. 

They  all  tried  to  get  upon  the  rocking-horse, 
but  the  strongest  pushed  the  rest  away,  and 
got  on  the  horse  himself.  Then  two  other 
young  gentlemen  crept  under  the  horse's  legs, 
and  squatted  on  the  rocker,  and  two  others  on 
the  rockers  at  each  end.  And  it  was  in  vain  for 
the  one  on  the  horse's  back  to  kick  in  the  stir- 
ups,  or  to  flourish  the  whip  ;  the  others  ivoiild 
JticluDn,  and  very  soon  the  horse  turned  side- 
w-ayl^nd  fell  on  the  floor  with  a  great  noise. 

Tlie  young  gentlemen  were  all  hurt  a  little, 
ixcept  the  one  on  the  horse's  back  ;  he  had 
jumped  ofi"  at  first,  and  when  the  horse  waa 


112 


set  on  his  rockers  again,  he  had  all  the  riding, 
for  tiie  others  were  afraid  of  another  tumble. 

Poor  Willie !  he  was  very  uncomfortable  ; 
for,  besides  taking  possession  of  his  horse,  his 
young  friends  took  all  his  other  toys  and 
quarreled  over  them. 

One  carried  the  box  of  big  bricks  into  a 
corner,  and  another,  who  wanted  the  bricks 
too,  stood  by  and  knocked  them  down  as  fast 
as  they  were  set  up  ;  and  soon  the  two  began 
to  throw  the  bricks  at  one  another,  instead  of 
building.  Three  others  pulled  out  the  large 
Noah's  ark  ;  but  each  one  wanted  to  arrange 
the  animals  himself,  and  snatching  them  from 
one  another,  a  great  many  of  the  animals' 
heads  and  legs  were  broken.  So  it  was  with 
the  ninepins,  and  the  puzzles,  and  the  great 
book  of  pictures  pasted  on  linen,  and  the  balls, 
and  whips,  and  drum.  Willie  had  not  one 
toy  to  play  with  himself,  and  those  who  had 
them  did  not  seem  to  enjoy  them,  foi^iey 
would  not  give  up  to  each  other  ;  and  soon 
they  threw  them  all  down,  and  began  to  play 
at  games  of  their   own  :    for  they  were   all 


Willie's  birthday.  113 

older  than  Willie,  who  had  thought  it  very 
fine  to  invite  them  because  they  were  older. 

He  had  expected  to  lead  all  the  games  him- 
self, and  to  say  what  games  should  be  played  ; 
but  all  made  sucli  a  noise,  and  were  so  full  of 
doing  just  what  each  liked,  that  Willie's  soft 
voice  was  not  heard,  nor  his  uncomfortable 
face  noticed. 

And  as  no  one  gave  up  to  the  other,  soon 
there  was  nothing  but  noise — no  regular  game ; 
unless  they  meant  to  play  at  a  garden  of  bears, 
or  a  wood  full  of  roaring  lions  :  for  they  made 
almost  as  much  noise  as  if  they  did. 

Willie  was  glad  when  the  servant  said  tea 
was  ready,  because  he  thought  they  would 
then  be  quiet.  Willie  had  asked  his  mamma 
to  let  him  make  the  tea,  and  she  was  to  sit  at 
the  bottom  of  the  table.  But  when  Willie 
tried  to  lift  the  heavy  silver  teapot,  he  could 
not  move  it  the  least.  And  when  he  had 
turned  the  tap  of  the  tea-urn,  he  could  not 
turn  it  back  again,  and  the  hot  water  poured 
all  over  the  board,  and  the  table,  and  scalded 
his  hand. 

10* 


114  Willie's  birthday. 

"  Mamma,  come,  come!"  cried  Willie,  "  come 
now,  for  I  like  you  to  come." 

Yes,  little  boys  always  like  their  mammas 
when  they  are  in  trouble.  Mamma  came,  for 
she  thought  Willie  had  suffered  enough  about 
the  tea  :  and  she  made  the  tea  and  helped 
every  one  :  so  for  a  little  time  they  were  quiet, 
because  they  were  eating  and  drinking,  and 
because  mamma  was  there. 

On  the  table,  at  tea,  was  a  dish  of  large 
strawberries.  Willie  knew  the  dish  very  well 
— it  was  the  very  dish  from  which  he  had  eaten 
six  large  strawberries  in  the  morning. 

"  Willie,"  said  mamma,  "  few  strawberries 
are  ripe  yet,  but  I  gathered  enough  for  you  all 
to  have  six  a-piece,  and  they  are  very  large. 
You  can  help  them  while  I  make  the  tea." 

So  Willie  gave  each  of  his  guests  six  straw- 
berries, and  took  six  himself.  Then  the  dish 
was  empty.  By-and-by,  mamma,  who  had 
been  busy  making  tea,  looked  up. 

''  Why,  Willie,  where  are  baby's  straw- 
berries ?" 

"  Baby's  strawberries,  mamma  ?"  said  Willie. 


Willie's  birthday.  115 

"  Yes,  Willie  ;  there  were  six  for  each  of 
you,  and  six  for  baby  ;  for  he  loves  strawber- 
ries very  much,  and  I  was  going  to  send  them 
to  the  nursery  for  him,  as  he  is  too  young  to 
have  tea  with  us.  Where  can  his  six  straw- 
berries be  ?  You  must  have  given  some  one 
more  than  six." 

Willie  looked  into  his  plate  ;  he  had  eaten 
all  his  strawberries  :  but  that  was  not  why  he 
looked  down.  It  was  because  he  had  eaten 
baby's  strawberries  in  the  morning ;  and  he 
felt  he  had  been  greedy,  and  selfish,  and  mean, 
in  doing  what  he  liked.  He  loved  baby  so 
dearly  too,  and  baby  loved  strawberries  better 
than  anything  to  eat ;  but  baby  would  have 
no  strawberries,  because  Willie  had  eaten  his 
own  share  and  baby's  too ! 

Willie  could  not  speak  before  all  those  boys, 
or  he  felt  tliat  he  should  cry  ;  but  he  almost 
began  to  wish  it  was  bedtime,  that  he  miglit 
tell  mamma  :  for  he  never  felt  quite  happy, 
after  he  had  been  naughty  and  foolish,  until  he 
had  told  mamma. 

While  Willie  and  his  friends  were  at  tea, 


116  WILLIE'S   BIRTHDAY. 

papa  was  at  dinner,  for  he  had  now  come  oack 
from  London.  Willie  began  to  think  how  he 
should  amuse  his  friends  until  they  went  away, 
for  they  had  all  seemed  tired  of  doing  what 
they  liked,  and  he  did  not  feel  as  if  he  had 
done  what  he  liked  at  all. 

He  thought,  and  thought,  until  he  remem- 
bered that  papa  had  been  so  kind  as  to  say  he 
would  give  them  all  a  treat  in  the  evening. 
Soon  papa  came  to  the  tent,  and  told  Willie  he 
had  asked  the  gentleman  who  lived  in  the 
next  house,  and  who  had  a  very  nice  boat,  to 
lend  him  the  boat,  that  they  might  all  go  out 
for  a  row  upon  the  river. 

The  river  flowed  through  papa's  garden,  and 
through  the  garden  of  the  gentleman  who 
lived  next  to  papa,  and  then  it  got  much  wider, 
flowing  a  long  way  through  beautiful  green 
fields. 

Willie's  papa  had  two  swans,  and  Willie 
and  baby  often  went  down  to  the  river  to 
feed  the  swans  with  bread.  They  always  went 
with  nurse,  though,  and  were  told  they  must 
never  go  alone  ;  because  the  bank  was  very 


Willie's  juktjid.w.  117 

steep  and  bent  down  over  tlie  water  at  the 
bottom,  and  the  water  was  very  deep. 

Willie  had  also  seen  tlie  gentleman's  boat 
a  long  way  off,  when  the  gentleman  was  row- 
ing it,  and  often,  very  often,  longed  to  go  in 
it.  He  thought  his  friends  would  like  to  go 
too  ;  and  so  they  did  :  now,  for  the  first  time 
on  his  birthday,  Willie  felt  happy,  quite  happy 
in  doing  what  he  liked. 

Papa  had  brought  the  boat  to  that  part  of 
the  river  which  flowed  through  his  own  garden, 
and  it  was  tied  to  the  stump  of  an  old  willow- 
tree  that  bowed  over  the  river  from  the  bank. 
Papa  lifted  all  the  boys  in  ;  though  some  of  the 
bigger  ones  were  rather  angry  at  being  lifted, 
but  they  dared  not  show  their  anger  before  a 
great  papa.  Papa  lifted  them  because  he  knew 
how  silly  boys  are,  and  was  afraid  they  might 
slip,  in  stepping  down  from  the  bank.  He  lifted 
Willie  last  into  the  boat,  and  then  got  in  him- 
self, untied  the  boat,  and  took  up  both  the  oars. 

All  the  boys  liked  it  very  much  at  first,  but 
I  think  Willie  liked  it  better  than  any  of  them. 
It  was  so  pretty  to  see  the  green  oar  dip  into 


118 


the  clear  water,  and  then  come  up  aj^-ain  out  of 
the  water,  throwing  little  white  splashes  round 
it,  like  the  foam  on  the  waves  of  the  sea.  And 
it  was  so  pleasant  to  move  so  gently,  instead 
of  being  tossed  up  and  down,  as  Willie  remem- 
bered to  have  been  when  his  papa  took  him  in 
a  little  boat  on  the  waves  of  the  sea. 

There  was  a  little  island  too,  on  which  the 
swans  built  their  nests,  and  Willie  had  often 
wished  to  get  close  to  the  island.  Now  they 
passed  so  near  it,  that  Willie  was  able  to  pluck 
one  of  the  tall  bulrushes  which  grew  about  the 
nests,  and  he  even  saw  the  eggs  in  the  nest, 
half  hidden  under  the  thick  grass. 

Soon  the  river  became  wider,  and  there 
were  corn-fields,  and  fields  of  oats  and  barley, 
and  little  cottages,  and  large  farm-houses,  and 
barns  and  hay-ricks,  on  each  side. 

At  last,  on  one  side  of  the  river,  they  pass- 
ed a  large  green  field  where  the  grass  had 
been  cut  quite  short,  and  tliere  a  great  many 
boys  and  men  were  playing  at  cricket. 
Willie  could  not  play  at  cricket  yet.  and  as  be 
did  not  understand  the  game,  he  did  not  care 


119 


about  it  ;  but  all  the  other  boys  had  begun  to 
learn,  and  cared  about  it  very  much.  They 
all  said  so  ;  and  the  biggest  boy  said  he  could 
see  his  elder  brother,  who  was  at  play  in  the 
field  among  the  rest.  So,  as  papa  was  very 
tired  of  rowing,  he  said  tliey  should  all  get 
out  for  a  little  time,  and  that  those  who  liked 
could  watch  the  game,  and  those  who  liked 
could  run  about,  wliile  he  rested. 

Willie  did  not  want  to  get  out,  lie  wanted 
to  go  on  in  the  boat ;  but  when  he  heard  papa 
say  he  was  tired,  he  was  ashamed  of  asking. 
He  would  have  been  ashamed,  also,  of  saying 
he  wanted  to  go  on,  when  all  the  rest  wanted  to 
go  out  ;  but  he  thought  it  was  very  disagree- 
able, and  the  thought  made  his  face  look 
disagreeable  too,  for  a  little  while. 

There  was  a  nice  smooth  low  bank  just 
there,  and  they  all  landed  safely — Willie  last ; 
except  papa,  who  just  stayed  to  put  the  oars 
along  the  seats  of  the  boat.  All  the  boys  left 
Willie  standing  by  himself  upon  the  bank,  and 
ran  directly  to  the  place  where  tlie  people  were 
playing  at  cricket. 


120  Willie's  birthday. 

Papa  went  too,  and  looked  on  at  the  game. 
Willie  knew  very  well  that  if  he  had  gone  and 
?fcood  by  his  papa,  and  asked  him,  papa  would 
have  told  him  all  about  the  game,  and  made  it 
pleasant  to  him  tliough  he  could  not  play. 
But  Willie  would  not  go,  because  he  felt  vexed 
at  being  taken  out  of  the  boat. 

He  was  very  uncomfortable  indeed.  Nothing 
looked  pretty  to  his  eyes  just  then  ;  not  the 
green  boat,  nor  the  blue  forget-me-nots  and 
pink  flowering  rushes  which  grew  in  the  water 
so  near  that  he  could  have  gathered  a  fine 
nosegay.  Nothing  seemed  agreeable ;  the 
merry  shouts  of  the  men  and  boys  at  play,  and 
the  sweet  ringing  of  the  church  bells  across 
the  field,  sounded  sad,  and  made  the  tears  come 
into  Willie's  eyes. 

Yet  he  felt  he  was  not  quite  good  ;  and 
if  he  had  been  brave  he  would  have  fought 
with  the  naughty  spirit  that  wanted  to  get 
into  his  heart,  and  pushed  it  away.  He  would 
have  swallowed  his  tears  and  run  to  his  papa, 
and  asked  him  questions,  smiling  as  he  did 
when  he  was  good. 


Wl  [.lie's   BIKTIIDAr.  121 

But  he  would  not  figlit  the  spirit  ;  he  let  it 
creep  into  his  heart,  and  it  drove  all  the  love 
out  of  his  heart  for  a  little  while  ;  for  it  was 
the  spirit  called  self-will.  That  spirit  made 
Willie  stand  with  his  back  to  everybody,  on 
the  bank,  all  the  time  the  others  were  enjovino- 
themselves  in  the  field.  And  tliere  papa^saw 
him,  when  he  came  to  unfasten  the  boat. 

While  papa  was  rowing  back  acrain  towards 
Willie's  home  the  eldest  of  tlie  boys  said  he 
could  row  a  little,  and  asked  if  he  might  try 
the  oars.     Papa  was  so  kind  as  to  allow  him'; 
and  then   another  of  the  boys  wanted   to  try' 
and  then  another  ;  though  onlv  the  eldest  knew 
how  to  row.     They  could  all  manage  to  hold 
the  oars  for  a  minute,  because  they  were  all 
older  and  stronger  than  Willie,  who  was  two 
years  younger  tlian  the  youngest  of  them. 
.  ^  Then  Willie  wanted  to  row.     Papa  was  so 
kind  as  to  put  the  oars  in  his  hands.     His  little 
fat  fingers  could  scarcely  get  round  the  oars 
^and  he  could  not  hold  them  a  minute,  they  were 
^0  heavy.     He  would  have  dropped  them  into 
the  water  if  papa  had  not  caught  hold  of  them 
11 


122  Willie's  birthday. 

The  boys  all  laughed.  But  the  naughty 
spirit  whispered  in  AVillie's  heart,  "It  was 
only  because  you  tried  to  lift  both  oars  at  once. 
You  could  row  with  one  oar,  as  the  youngest 
boy  did.  When  they  are  all  gone  out  of  the 
boat  you  shall  try  again  ;  but  not  while  they 
are  looking,  for  they  would  laugh. 

Papa  found  they  were  getting  on  so  slowly 
while  the  boys  held  the  oars,  that  he  took 
them  himself  and  rowed  home  very  fast.  The 
sun  was  just  set,  but  there  was  a  beautiful 
moon  ;  and  as  they  stopped  at  the  bottom  of 
the  garden,  they  saw  that  the  tent  on  the  lawn 
was  lighted  up  with  lamps. 

The^amps  made  Willie  forget  the  oars  for  a 
little  while,  and  he  ran  up  the  garden  ;  and 
the  other  boys  ran  too.  They  were  all  very 
hungry  with  the  air  on  the  river,  and  very' 
glad  to  see  the  table  ready  laid  for  supper. 
There  was  Willie's  place,  too,  on  a  chair 
higher  than  the  rest,  at  the  top  of  the  table  ; 
an°d  thathigli  throne  helped  still  more  to  make 
him  forget  the  oars. 

Mamma  and  papa  sat  at  the  bottom  of  the 


Willie's  birthday.  I93 

table,  side  by  side.     AVillie  l,ad  forgotten  all 
about  the  flag,  too,  which  he  liad  broken  off 
the  cake  in   tlie  morning  ;    and,  thougli  the 
cake  was  on  a  very  liigli  dish  in  tlie  middle  of 
tlie  table,  yet  AVillie  was  so  hungry  he  did  not 
look  particularly  at  anything  but  his  plate  • 
for  the  air  had  given  him  the  first  appetite  he 
bad  felt  on  his  birthday,  and   he  could 'enjoy 
the  nice  things,  and  he  ate  a  great  many  of 
them.     All  the  boys  were  enjoying  them  too 
and   they,  also,  were  looking  too  particularly 
M  their  plates  to   think  of  the  cake  ;  for  the 
cake   was   to   be   cut   last   of  all,   when   the 
servants  came  into  the  tent. 

When  Willie  had  eaten  as  much  as  he  could 
of -^old  chicken  and  ham,  and  pie  and  pudding, 
and  tart  and  custard,  he  found  time  to  look 
about  him.  All  at  once  he  saw  the  French 
and  Sardinian  flags,  waving  in  the  middle  of 
the  cake,  without  the  English  flag.  What  a 
strange  and  ridiculous  thing  for  an  English 
boy  on  his  birthday  to  hoist  no  English  flag  ! 

And  it  looked  still  more  odd  in  the  evenln- 
than  it  had  done  in  the  morning,  because  since 


124  Willie's  birthday. 

then  tlie  cake  had  been  covered  with  coloured 
sugar  soldiers  in  English  soldiers'  dresses,  and 
coloured  sugar  sailors,  in  the  blue  jackets  of 
En<?lish  sailors.  And  no  Eno^lish  flaor !  The  bovs 
would  soon  find  it  out,  that  was  the  worst  of  all. 

Besides  Willie's  uncomfortable  feelings  about 
the  flag,  I  believe  he  had  eaten  too  much,  or 
was  getting  sleepy,  for  he  began  to  have  the 
same  uncomfortable  feelings  he  had  in  the  boat. 
The  naughty  spirit  had  not  yet  gone  out  of  his 
heart,  because  he  had  not  pushed  it  back  with 
all  his  might  at  first.  So  the  spirit  whispered 
to  him.  that  it  was  very  unkind  of  cook  not  to 
l)uy  another  flag  when  she  saw  the  English  one 
was  broken.  Willie  did  not  know  that  cook 
liad  sent  to  the  only  toyshop  in  the  village 
near  to  which  Willie  lived,  to  get  another  flag  ; 
but  that  she  could  not  buy  one  there  like  the 
first  one,  because  that  came  from  Loudon  witli 
the  other  ornaments. 

Still  more  uncomfortable  did  the  spirit  make 
Willie  feel  when  he  heard  one  of  the  boys 
uear  him  say  to  another  boy,  "  This  gooseberry 
cream  is  not  cream   at  all ;   it  is  poor  stufif 


Willie's  iUiiTHOAY.  125 

made  of  milk,  ami  very  nasty.     How  mean  to 

make  it  of  milk  instead  of  cream,  just  because 

milk  is  cheaper." 

Cannot  you  imagine  how  ashamed  and  angry 
■that  remark  made  Willie?    At  last  the  cake 

was  to  be  cut,  and   papa  had  the  dish  placed 
before  him,  and  took  up  a  large  knife.     But 
first  he  took  off  the  ornaments,  the  soldiers 
and  sailors,  and   the   sugar  cannon-balls.      I 
think  papa  had  noticed  the  flag  was  gone,  and 
guessed  something  about  who  had  taken  it,  for 
he  looked  at  Willie,  and  Willie  got  red.     But 
neither  papa  nor  mamma  said  a  word  about  it. 
The  boys  very  soon  saw  what  was  wanting  on 
the  top  of  the  cake,  and  they  whispered  among 
each  other,  and  pointed   and  made  grimaces, 
which  was  worse  to  Willie  than  if  they  had 
spoken  aloud. 

Papa  had  just  taken  off  the  last  soldier,  and 
was  going  to  plunge  the  knife  into  the  sugar, 
when  the  servants  came  into  the  tent.  And 
nurse,  walking  first,  and  looking  very  solemn, 
with  the  lamp  shining  very  brightly  on  her 
spectacles,  came  up  behind  papa's  chair. 
11* 


126  WILLIE'S   lilRTHDAY. 

Willie  trembled  ;  something  made  him  feel 
she  was  there  about  the  flair.  And  so  slie 
was  ;  for  she  leaned  over  the  cliair,  and  stretch- 
ed her  hand,  and  in  her  liand  was  the  English 
flag.  AVillie  stooped  his  head  down  and  did 
not  see  that  she  stuck  it  in  the  sugar  beside 
the  other  flags.     Bat  he  heard  papa's  voice. 

"  Dear  me  !  "  said  papa,  ''  I  am  glad  to  see 
the  flag  come  back,  foi  we  made  a  poor  sight 
without  our  own  Queen's  colours.  Where  did 
you  find  it,  nurse  ?  " 

•  For  papa  quite  thought  then  it  had  broken 
off  by  an  accident,  and  that  Willie  had  nothing 
to  do  with  it.  But  nurse  wanted  to  give 
Willie  a  lesson  which  she  thought  would  do 
liim  good.  So  she  answered  very  distinctly, 
"  I  found  the  flag,  sir,  in  the  pocket  of  the 
trousers  which  Master  Willie  wore  this 
morning.'' 

Then  Willie  was  very,  very  angry,  and  the 
naughty  spirit  seemed  to  kick  inside  his  heart. 
He  jumped  off  his  high  seat,  and  ran  out  of  the 
tent  as  fast  as  possible,  and  down  to  the  bottom 
of  the  garden.     For  the  bad  spirit  told  Willie 


Willie's  birthday.  127 

to  stamp  and  scream,  and  he  dared  not  stamp 
and  scream  where  any  one  could  liear  hinL 

Then  some  of  the  boys  jumped  up ;  for 
though  some  of  tliem  were  silly,  and  others 
rude,  they  were  all  sorry  for  Willie  now,  and 
wanted  to  bring  him  back.  But  Willie's  papa 
would  not  let  them  go,  for  he  said,  "  Willie  has 
reason  to  be  ashamed,  and  if  he  is  alone  a  little 
while  he  will  become  sorry  also." 

Willie  stamped  and  screamed  for  quite  five 
minutes  ;  and,  while  he  was  stamping  and 
screaming,  he  saw  the  dog  his  papa  had  given 
him,  and  which  had  followed  him  without  his 
knowing  it.  The  dog's  bright  eyes  were  fixed 
on  Willie,  almost  as  though  he  were  shocked 
to  see  such  stamps  and  hear  such  screams. 
And  Willie,  naughtiest  then  of  all,  took  up  a 
stick  and  beat  the  dog  away.  And  the  poor 
dog  ran  to  hide  itself  under  some  laurel  bushes 
which  grew  near  the  river. 

Presently  Willie  got  quiet ;  not  because  he 
felt  good  though,  but  because  his  throat  was 
sore  with  screaming,  and  he  had  stamped  his 
foot  upon  a  sharp  stone  which   hurt  it  very 


128  Willie's  birthday. 

much.  The  naughty  spirit  then  said  again  in 
his  heart,  louder  than  the  first  time,  '  Go  and 
get  into  the  boat  now,  for  no  one  is  looking, 
and  you  can  do  just  as  you  like  witli  the  oars'." 

Willie  obeyed  the  spirit.  He  looked  up  the 
garden  first,  for  fear  any  one  sliould  see  ;  but 
they  were  all  safe  in  the  tent.  The  little  white 
moon  looked  down  on  him,  but  she  could  not 
tell  anybody  ;  and  the  dog  was  watching 
Willie  behind  the  laurel  bushes,  but  Willie  did 
not  see  him. 

Very  softly  Willie  trod  to  the  water's  edge. 

Papa  was  going  to  return  the  boat  that 
night  to  the  gentleman  who  had  lent  it  to  him  ; 
so  he  had  not  tied  it  to  the  trunk  of  the  tree, 
only  left  it  close  to  the  bank. 

Willie  did  not  see  that  the  boat  was  not 
tied,  and  the  bank  was  so  high  he  was  obliged 
to  jump  down.  He  was  surprised  and 
frightened  then  to  see  that  the  boat  moved  a 
little  way  from  the  bank  as  he  jumped  in. 
How  should  he  get  on  shore  again  ? 

Then  tlie  naughty  spirit  said,  "  You  can  row 
with   one  oar,  if  you  cannot  row  with  two  ; 


WILl-IK   AM)    Till-.    UOAT. 


Willie's  Birtlulay. 


129 


you  will  be  able  to  row  yourself  back  that 
little  way." 

The  oars  were  laid  along  the  seats.  Willie 
could  raise  one  by  using  all  his  strength,  and 
tipping  it  on  one  end.  But  when  he  tried  to 
put  it  sideways,  that  he  might  hold  it  over  the 
side  of  the  boat,  it  slipped  through  his  fingers  : 
and,  as  there  was  no  papa  there  to  catch  it, 
fell  into  the  water  with  a  great  splash.  It  fell 
at  the  end  of  the  boat  farthest  from  the  bank, 
and  Willie,  dreadfully  frightened  to  see  the  oar 
fall,  leaned  down  over  the  end  of  the  boat,  and 
tried  to  catch  it. 

The  boat  tipped  up  very  much,  and  its  edge 
was  very  near  the  water  because  there  was  no- 
body at  the  other  end. 

The  oar  was  floating  on  the  water,  and 
Willie  stretched  his  arm.  It  floated  further  : 
he  stretched  his  arm  more,  and  in  a  moment 
— he  never  could  remember  how  it  happened 
— he  fell  head  first  down  into  the  water 
himself. 

Deep,  deep  he  felt  as  if  he  were  going,  and 
the  dreadful  water  filled  his  ears  and  mouth, 


130  Willie's  birtiilay. 

and  soaked  his  clothe?,  dragging  him  down, 
down  to  the  bottom.  But,  before  he  got  to 
the  bottom,  Willie  knew  nothing  :  the  dreadful 
water  had  taken  away  his  senses,  and  soon, 
very  soon,  he  must  die. 

But  no,  no,  no  !  What  is  that  rustling  of 
leaves,  when  there  is  no  wind  ?  What  is  that 
loud  sharp  bark,  and  what  are  those  little 
lights,  bright  as  glow-worms,  on  the  bank  ? 
It  is  the  dog,  the  poor  dog  Willie  neglected  in 
the  morning,  and  drove  away  with  a  stick  to- 
night. The  dog  heard  Willie's  splash  as  he 
fell  into  tlie  water  :  he  burst  through  the 
laurel  bushes,  making  the  leaves  rustle  like 
the  wind.  His  was  the  loud  sharp  bark. 
His  eyes  shone  like  the  glow-worms. 

Just  as  Willie  sank,  the  dog  jumped  off  the 
bank,  swam  bravely  to  the  place  where  Willie 
fell,  dived  down  into  the  water  there,  and  then, 
feeling  about  under  the  water  with  his 
wonderful  nose  smelt  out  Willie. 

The  poor  dog  was  not  very  big,  and  Willie 
was  a  heavy  weight  for  him,  but  he  took 
Willie's  wet  velvet  frock  between  his  teeth, 


Willie's  birthday.  131 

and  dragged  and  pulled  with  all  his  strengtli 
till  Willie's  liead  was  above  the  water.  Then 
he  swam  with  Willie  to  the  shore,  always 
keeping  his  head  above  the  water  and  dragged 
him — hardest  of  all — up  the  steep  bank. 

Then  the  dog  let  Willie's  frock  fall,  and  ran 
up  the  garden  faster  tlian  ever  he  ran  before, 
and  into  tlie  tent,  all  dripping  wet  as  he  was, 
and  very  tired  too,  I  dare  say.  Up  to  Willie's 
papa  he  ran,  and  took  his  coat  between  his 
teeth  and  pulled  it,  whining  very  much  and 
looking  up  earnestly  in  his  face.  Papa  turned 
pale.  All  in  a  minute  he  thought  of  the  water, 
of  the  boat,  of  Willie.  He  ran  down  the  gar- 
den, and  the  dog  ran  faster  on  before  ;  and 
mamma  ran,  and  nurse  ran,  and  all  the  servants, 
and  all  the  boys. 

What  a  sight  was  that  on  the  top  of  the 
bank  !  Willie's  senses  had  come  back  to  him 
a  little  then,  and  he  had  opened  his  eyes,  but 
he  felt  too  weak  to  move.  His  clothes  stuck 
close  to  his  poor  little  body,  and  his  yellow 
curls  lay  out  straight  on  the  grass,  and  he  shiv- 
ered, 3hivered,  as  if  he  had  been  left  in  the  snow. 


132  Willie's  birthday. 

Papa  lifted  liim  up  directly,  and  ran  home 
with  him.  Nurse  made  his  bed  warm  with  a 
warming-pan.  Mamma  undressed  him  and 
rubbed  him  before  tlie  fire  before  she  put  him 
into  his  bed. 

And  when  he  w^as  warm  in  bed,  he  put  hi3 
head  underneath  all  the  clothes,  for  be  was 
glad  not  to  look  anybody  in  the  face  again  that 
night ;  and  soon  he  fell  asleep,  and  had  dread- 
ful dreams  of  water,  and  wonderful  dreams  of 
the  door.     Mamma  sat  beside  him  all  nio-ht. 

Directly  Willie  was  safe  in  his  warm  bed, 
and  after  papa  had  seen  him  there,  papa  went 
down  to  the  bottom  of  the  garden,  for  he 
thought,  "  I  ^\\\\  take  the  boat  home  directly 
to  the  gentleman  who  lent  it  to  me  ;  for,  if  I 
leave  it  there,  perhaps  some  otlier  person 
besides  Willie  tvill  meddle  with  it  and  fall 
into  the  water."  But  when  })apa  came  to  the 
water's  edge,  lie  saw  that  tlie  boat  was  too  far 
from  the  bank  for  him  to  be  able  to  jump  in 
without  tumbling  into  tlie  water  too. 

You  remember  that  the  boat  moved  away 
from  the  bank  when  Willie  jumped  in.     Well, 


WILLIE'S  BIRTHDAY.  183 

papa  knew  then  that  he  could  not  get  the 
boat  that  night,  so  lie  went  home,  saying,  "  It 
is  a  good  thing  that  all  little  boys  are  gone 
to  bed  by  this  time,  so  that  they  cannot  get  at 
the  boat." 

Next  morning,  very  early,  papa  got  up  and 
went  into  the  field  where  the  haymakers  had 
just  come  to  work.  Papa  bori'owed  the  longest 
rake  of  all  the  rakes  from  the  haymakers. 
Then  he  took  the  rake  to  the  bottom  of  the 
garden,  and  stood  quite  at  the  bottom  of  the 
bank,  and  stretched  out  the  long  rake  and  his 
own  arm  as  far  as  ever  he  could.  The  rake 
just  touched  the  edge  of  the  boat,  and  the  teeth 
of  the  rake  just  went  over  the  edge,  and  made 
the  rake  firm  to  the  boat,  so  that  papa  could 
pull  it  towards  him.  And,  when  it  was  near 
enough,  he  stepped  in  and  began  to  row 
with  the  oar  that  was  left,  to  find  the  oar 
that  was  lost  through  Willie's  meddling  with 
it.  Very  soon  he  found  the  lost  oar,  caught 
in  some  rushes  a  little  way  along  the  bank. 

Then  papa  rowed,  as  fast  as  ever  he  could, 
with  both  oars,  till  he  came  to  that  part  of 
12 


134  Willie's  birthday. 

the  river  whicli  flowed  through  the  gentle- 
man's garden.  There  was  the  boat's  own 
liome,  under  a  little  green  shed,  to  keep  it 
from  the  rain  ;  and  there  was  a  green  post  to 
tie  it  to.  Papa  tied  it  tight,  then  laid  the 
oars  along  the  seats,  jumped  on  shore  into 
the  garden,  and  went  across  the  garden 
to  the  gentleman's  field,  from  that  to  his  own 
field,  and  through  his  own  garden,  home. 

The  water  drove  the  naughty  spirit  out 
of  Willie,  I  hope  and  think  ;  for  when  he 
woke,  very  latq  Jhat  morning,  and  saw  mamma 
sitting  by  his  bed,  and  knew  that  she  had  been 
there  all  night,  he  burst  into  very  soft  tears, 
and  threw  his  arms  round  her  neck. 

«  Dear  mamma,"  he  said,  "  I  am  sure  1  shall 
never  wish  to  do  as  1  like  again,  unless  I  ask 
you  first,  and  you  say  that  you  like  me  to  do 

it  too," 

■'  Then,"  said  mamma,  "  Willie  has  had  a 
lesson  given  him,  better  than  all  his  presents, 
on  his  birthday." 

THE  END. 


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